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MYSTERIES 


A    FULL    EXPOSURE 


ITS  SECRET  PRACTICES  AND  HIDDEN  CRIMES. 


BY     AN     APOSTLE'S     WIFE. 


FULLY    ILLUSTRATED. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

RICHARD     K.     FOX,     PROPRIETOR     POLICE     GAZETTE, 

FRANKLIN  SOUAPt    NEW  YORK 


54 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1881,  by 

EICHAED    K.    FOX, 
Publisher   oc   the   POLICE   GAZETTE, 

NEW  YORK, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


CONTENTS. 


I.-THE    "DESTROYING    ANGELS"    FOILED.      ...  7 

II.— THE    ORIGIN    OF    MOBMONISM, 10 

HI.— THE    MORMON    GOSPEL,        -                      ....  13 

IV.— MORMON    POLYGAMY    AND    GOVERNMENT.      -          -  -16 

V.— MORMON    MIRACLES,   -                       .  20 

VI.— JOE    SMITH    MOVES    WEST,      -  .     25 

VII.-BBIGHAM    YOUNG    STEPS    IN,      -                                 ,  28 

Vm.— THE    CRIMES    OF    MORMONISM,        -  .33 

IX— THE    DANITES, 36 

X.— SECRETS    OF    THE    ENDOWMENT    HOUSE,         -          .  .42 

XI.— MORMON    WIVES,           ...                      .  52 

XII.— MEN    WITH    MANY    WIVES,  .     59 

Xni.— A    MORMON    WIFE'S    STORY,         -  3g 

XIV.— THE    DOOM    OF    MORMONISM,           .          .          ,          „  ,     3? 


IN    THE    HOLY    BATH. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 


CHAPTER    I. 


Mormonism  has  well  been  called  the  twin  relic  of  barbarism.  It 
is  more.  It  is  an  infamy  even  modern  barbarism  scarcely  tol- 
erates. The  Turk  preserves  a  certain  decency  in  the  public  man- 
agement of  his  seraglio  nowadays,  and  the  Orientally  atnlacious  flaunt- 
ing of  his  sensual  indulgence  which  makes  the  old  romances  of  the 
East  so  unique  in  their  naughty  piquancy  has  vanished.  He  has  his 
scores  of  wives  still  but  he  keeps  them  in  private,  and  when  he  goes 
among  men  who  are  not  of  his  faith  he  does  not  attempt  to  proselytize 
them  or  to  extend  his  branded  creed. 

How  different  it  is  with  the  devotee  of  that  bestial  belief  who 
covers,  or  essays  to  cover,  the  rottenness  of  his  creed  with  the  claim  to 
Divine  endorsement,  thanks  to  which  he  dubs  himself  a  Latter  Day 
Saint ! 

No  modest  obscurity  for  him  !  No  humble  enjoyment  of  his  licen- 
tious worships  in  the  secrecy  of  his  own  house  !  The  world  must  know 
it;  and  not  only  that,  the  world  must  contribute  to  its  support  and 
expansion.  The  Mormon  missionary  goes  abroad  in  the  highways  and 
byways  of  the  earth,  preaching  his  creed  of  the  bagnio  to  the  ignorant 
and  depraved  and  gathering  them  into  the  fold. 

If  Mormonism  had  its  root  in  the  remote  wilds  of  Siberia  this 
condition  of  affairs  would  be  bad  enough.  What  can  be  said  of  it, 
then,  when  it  nestles  in  the  bosom  of  the  greatest  and  freest  nation  of 
tin*  earth  and  blots  the  boasted  civilization  of  a  republic  which  has 
done  more  in  a  century  than  any  other  governments  in  all  their  exist- 
ences to  enlighten  and  improve  the  world? 

The  polygamy  of  the  Mormon  community  is  the  foulest  ulcer  on 
the  body  of  our  nation.  The  trial  of  the  assassin  of  President  Gar- 

7 


EVEBY  WIPE  IS  QIVEN  SO   MUCH   OF  THE  HUSBAND'S  MONEY. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  9 

years  she  was  a  wanderer,  pursued  by  phantom  foes  whose  implaca- 
bility was  on  a  par  with  their  persistency.  Twice  in  France, 
once  in  England  and  thrice  in  the  United  States,  was  she  compelled  to 
call  upon  the  strong  arm  of  the  law  to  shield  her,  and  each  time  the 
same  mysterious  threat  of  ultimate  destruction  was  conveyed  to  her 
from  an  enemy  who  might  be  baffled  but  not  defeated. 

At  last  accident  came  to  her  rescue. 

Last  year  a  passenger  steamer  on  its  way  from  Europe  to  America 
was  wrecked  and  many  lives  were  lost.  The  passenger  list  was  pub- 
lished. Among  the  names  upon  it  was  the  writer's  and  it  belonged  to 
one  of  the  drowned. 

That  name  was  entered  in  the  "red  book,"  the  sinister  record  kept 
of  the  foes  whom  Mormonism  has  denounced.  Against  it  was  set  a 
black  cross  and  the  remark,  "The  Lord  hath  conquered!  Glory  to  his 
name ! " 

Thus,  dead  but  alive,  I  give  this  work  to  the  world.  It  was  written 
during  years  of  wandering,  and  chapters  of  it  first  saw  the  light  in 
many  foreign  lands.  But  it  is  complete  and  honest.  What  it  may  lack 
in  style  it  makes  up  in  fact.  It  is  no  fault  of  mine  that  the  stories  it 
fclls  read  like  romances  and  are  a  shame  upon  the  land  in  which  their 
incidents  were  enacted. 

I  trust  and  desire  that  the  reader  will  remember  this. 

I  write  from  actual  experience.  I  tell  nothing  I  am  not  aware  of 
the  truth  of  ;  there  is  not  one  of  t'h  j  romantic  events,  the  shocking 
crimes  and  the  infamous  observances  I  tell  of  which  has  not  every 
foundation  of  its  occurrence  for  existence  here. 

I  make  these  revelations  in  the  interest  of  society  and  of  the  world. 
I  hope  my  pages  will  be  a  warning  to  some  who  are  rashly  about  to 
enter  on  the  gloomy  and  debased  path  I  have  followed  to  my  sorrow ; 
I  trust  they  will  encourage  by  my  example  some  who  have  entered  into 
th  •  shadow  of  shame  to  withdraw  while  there  is  yet  time. 

So  much  for  myself  ;  now  for  my  work. 


10  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MO&MONISM. 


CHAPTER     II. 

THE   ORIGIN   OF   MOBMONISM. 

Mormonism  was  a  swindle  from  the  very  start.  It  is  to-day  a 
monstrous  crime  grown  from  the  successful  fraud  of  a  shrewd  confi- 
dence operator. 

The  founder  of  Mormonism  was  Joseph  Smith.  Born  at  Sharon, 
Windsor  County,  Vermont,  on  Dec.  23,  1805,  he  came  of  the  worst  of  a 
bad  breed.  His  parents  were  "hard  cases,"  and  renowned  as  such 
throughout  the  neighborhood.  When,  in  1815, 'they  removed  to  Pal- 
myra, Wayne  County,  N.  Y.,  there  was  an  universal  expression  of  satis- 
faction on  all  sides. 

The  Smiths  recommenced  in  New  York  their  existence  in  Vermont. 
They  avoided  honest  labor  and  lived  on  credit,  not  without  suspicion 
of  having  more  than  a  passing  knowledge  of  their  neighbors'  fields  and 
henroosts.  Nowadays  they  would  have  probably  become  tramps.  Then 
they  were  tolerated  because  people  did  not  know  how  to  get  rid  of 
them. 

There  was  only  one  business  the  bmiths  indulged  in  with  any  show 
of  industry.  When  they  were  sober  enough  (for  they  were  lusty 
topers)  they  were  perpetually  digging  for  buried  treasure.  Next  to 
this  pursuit  they  starred  in  the  nefarious  one  of  sheep  stealing.  In 
1833  upwards  of  sixty  leading  citizens  of  Wayne  County,  who  were 
called  upon  to  depose  as  to  the  character  of  the  Smiths,  testified  un- 
der oath  that  they  were  immoral,  false  and  fraudulent,  and  that  the 
hopeful  Joseph  was  the  worse  of  the  lot. 

Yet  this  is  the  man  who  founded  what  he  dared  call  a  faith,  and 
grafted  on  the  United  States  the  religion  of  licentiousness  and  bodily 
lust  known  as  Mormonism. 

What  a  clever,  bright,  intelligent  man  this  must  have  been,  though y 
aays  the  reader.  On  the  contrary ;  he  was  an  ignorant,  brutal  loafer. 
He  could  scarcely  read,  wrote  a  hand  scarcely  anyone,  even  himself, 
could  understand,  and  was  ignorant  even  of  the  elementary  rules  of 
arithmetic.  But  he  was  shrewd,  fearless  and  inventive.  Living  among 
a  country  community  where  superstitions  were  commonly  current,  he 


MOBBING  A  MOBMON  MEETING. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MOEMON1SM.  II 


had  wit  enough  to  comprehend  the  value  of  superstition  as  a  means  of 
defrauding  its  votaries.  He  began  active  life  by  wandering  about  the 
country  with  a  divining  rod,  seeking  water  and  buried  treasure.  Then, 
finding  that  religious  ideas  of  a  novel  sort  were  popular  just  then,  he 
turned  his  attention  in  that  direction. 

According  to  his  own  report  he  commenced  to  have  visions  at  the 
age  of  fifteen,  when,  on  Sept.  21,  1823,  the  angel  Moroni  appeared  to 
him  three  times,  instructing  him  that  God  had  selected  him  for  the 
prophet  of  the  new  and  real  faith.  According  to  this  account  the 
angel  sent  Smith  to  a  hill  in  Manchester,  Ontario  County,  N.  Y.,  to  dig 
up  the  record  of  the  faith,  written  on  plates  of  gold,  and  a  sort  of  celes- 
tial spectacles  made  of  two  transparent  stones,  without  which  it  would 
be  impossible  for  him  to  peruse  the  auriferous  chronicles. 

No  one  ever  saw  either  the  golden  plates  or  the  spectacles.  The 
former  were  described  as  being  eight  inches  long,  seven  inches  wide, 
about  as  thick  as  stout  tin  foil,  and  bound  together  by  three  rings. 
The  latter  Smith  gave  the  fantastic  name  of  Urium  and  Thummeruin, 
and  said  they  were  presented  to  him  by  the  angel  Moroni  on  Sept. 
22,  1822. 

With  the  aid  of  these  spectacles  Joseph  Smith,  sitting  behind  a 
blanket  to  preserve  the  precious  records  from  profane  eyes,  claimed  to 
read  off  the  "Golden  Bible,"  as  lie  called  it,  to  one  Oliver  Cowdery,  who 
wrote  it  down  as  he  heard  it.  The  account  thus  dictated  claimed  to  be 
a  history  of  the  prehistoric  inhabitants  of  America,  and  of  the  deal- 
ings of  God  with  them  on  the  basis  of  a  true  faith. 

Such  is  the  origin  of  Mormonism,  according  to  the  Mormons. 
Now  for  the  facts  : 

About  1740,  there  was  born  in  Ashford,  Conn.,  one  Solomon 
Spaulding.  He  graduated  at  Dartmouth  College  and  was  ordained  for 
the  ministry  in  1761.  He  soon  tired  of  preaching,  and  about  four  years 
later  became  a  store  keeper  at  Cherry  Valley,  N.  Y.,  whence,  in  1809, 
he  removed  to  Conneaut,  Ohio,  the  scene,  by-the-bye,  of  a  recent  prize 
fight  of  some  notoriety.  In  1812,  Spaulding  removed  to  Pittsburg,  Pa., 
and  in  1814  to  Ainity,  where  he  died  in  1816. 

This  wandering  backslider  from  the  ministry  was  a  visionary  with 
a  marked  turn  for  literature.  He  wrote  novels  of  such  a  worthless 
character  that  he  could  never  get  them  published,  so  they  perished  in 
manuscript,  after  having  been  read  by  his  friends.  While  he  was  living 


12  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 


in  Ohio  he  wrote  a  romance  to  account  for  the  peopling  of  America 
by  deriving  the  Indians  from  the  Jews.  It  was  an  absurd  book,  which 
to-day  would  probably  not  find  a  single  reader. 

The  writer  of  it  gave  it  out  as  a  manuscript  found  in  an  Indian 
mound  or  cave  in  Ohio.  He  called  it  "Manuscript  Found,"  and  one  of 
its  sections  was  called  the  "Book  of  Mormon."  All  these  facts  were 
publicly  known  ten  years  before  Joseph  Smith  turned  up  with  his  new 
religion. 

In  order  to  understand  how  Smith  got  hoid  of  them  I  must  intro- 
duce a  new  character. 

Sidney  Bigdon  was  born  in  St.  Glair  Township,  Allegheny  County, 
Pa.,  on  Feb.  19,  1793.  In  1812  Bigdon,  who  had  learned  the  printing 
trade,  was  connected  with  a  printing  office  at  Pittsburg.  To  this  place 
Solomon  Spaulding  brought  his  "Manuscript  Found"  to  have  it  put 
into  book  form.  It  was  not  printed  then,  but  Bigdon,  who  found  it 
lying  about  the  office,  became  possessed  of  an  idea  that  he  could  use  it 
at  some  time,  so  he  copied  it.  The  original  manuscript  was  returned 
to  the  author,  "declined  with  thanks,"  as  many  other  manuscripts  have 
been  before  and  since.  The  copy  Sidney  Bigdon  kept  for  himself. 

Soon  after  this  Bigdon  gave  up  type-setting  and  set  out  to  preach 
his  way  to  fortune  and  fame.  New  religions  were  in  fashion  in  those 
days,  and  he  had  one  which  included  many  ideas  from  Solomon 
Spaulding's  manuscript  and  other  original  ones  which  are  now  found 
in  the  Mormon  creed. 

In  1829  he  fell  in  with  Joseph  Smith.  Smith  had  already  made  a 
start  with  his  new  religion,  but  he  had  no  ideas  to  back  it.  He  had 
told  the  story  of  the  golden  plates,  but  endeavored  to  make  no  ex- 
planation of  what  was  inscribed  on  them.  Bigdon  saw  the  value  of  a 
combination  of  ideas  in  this  matter  and  lost  no  time  in  effecting  it.  He 
formed  a  partnership  with  Smith  and  read  to  him  the  romance  of 
Solomon  Spaulding. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  Spaulding  did  not  pretend  that  his 
"Book  of  Mormon"  or  the  "Manuscript  Found,"  of  which  it  was  a  por- 
tion, was  anything  but  a  dime  novel.  But  Bigdon  and  Smith  set  it  up 
for  holy  writ,  and  compared  it  with  the  tablets  of  stone  on  which  God's 
commandments  were  written  for  the  observance  of  Moses  and  his 
people. 

It  was  this  intention   of  Spaulding's   with  variations,  that  Joseph 


BIDDING  FOB  A   WIFE. 


HOW  THEY  DO  IT  AND  THEN  RUE  IT. 


THE  MYSTEEIES  OF  MORMONISM.  13 

Smith  dictated  to  Oliver  Cowdery  from  behind  the  blankets.  It  was 
printed  in  1830,  in  a  book  of  some  300  pages,  along  with  a  statement  by 
three  witnesses,  Cowdery,  David  Whitmer  and  Martin  Harris,  that  they 
had  seen  an  angel  bring  the  golden  plates  from  Heaven.  Harris  was  a 
farmer  who  advanced  the  money  to  print  the  book.  These  worthies 
afterwards  had  a  falling  out,  and  acknowledged  that  their  statement 
was  a  lie,  and  that  all  they  knew  of  the  plates  was  what  Smith  had 
told  them. 

However,  Smith  and  Kigdon  were  well  fixed  for  work  with  their 
bogus  bible.  As  soon  as  they  had  it  complete  they  began  to  preach 
its  tenets.  It  will  interest  the  reader  to  be  briefly  informed  what 
these  were. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    MORMON    GOSPEL. 

The  "Book  of  Mormon"  consists  of  sixteen  books,  professing  to  be 
written  by  as  many  different  prophets.  In  it  over  three  hundred  pas- 
sages of  the  Christian  Bible  are  found,  stolen  without  credit  Names 
of  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin  origin  are  used  in  it  indiscriminately. 

According  to  it,  one  Lehi  dwelt  in  Jerusalem  with  his  family  in 
the  days  of  King  Zedekiah,  six  hundred  years  B.  c.  The  Lord  sent 
him  into  the  wilderness  of  Arabia  where  he  dwelt  for  a  long  time. 
Then  he  got  another  divine  command  and  set  out  on  a  journey  for 
eight  years,  which  landed  them  on  the  sea  shore.  There  they  built  a 
ship  and  sailed  for  America.  Thay  landed  on  the  coast  of  Chili.  The 
emigrants  consisted  of  Lehi,  his  wife,  his  four  sons,  Laman,  Lemuel, 
Sam  and  Nephi,  their  four  wives,  two  "sons  of  Ishmael"  and  their  two 
wives,  and  Zoram,  a  servant  and  his  wife,  eight  grown  men  in  all  and 
as  many  women.  There  were  also  two  infant  sons  of  Lehi,  born  in  the 
journey.  Their  names  were  Jacob  and  Joseph. 

Lehi  died  soon  after  his  arrival  in  America,  and  his  sons  had  a 
row  and  split  up.  Nephi  and  his  younger  brother  Sam,  with  the  ser- 
vant, Zoram,  and  their  families  and  Jacob  and  Joseph,  moved  into  the 
wilderness,  with  some  followers.  The  rest  God  cursed  till  their  skin 
grew  red  and  they  became  Indians.  Such,  according  to  Joseph  Smith. 


U  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

Sidney  Rigdon  and  Solomon  Spaulding  was  the  commencement  of  the 
history  of  America.  Nephi  started  this  history,  and  in  hia  time  the 
race  increased  and  multiplied  very  fast.  After  his  death  his  descen- 
dants succeeded  him  in  power,  and  waxed  rich  and  strong. 

Finally  came  one,  Nephi  the  second,  and  during  his  rule  an  awful 
earthquake  announced  the  crucifixion.  Three  days  after,  Christ  him- 
self appeared  out  of  heaven,  showed  the  Nephites  his  wounds,  taught 
them,  performed  miracles  and  so  on  for  forty  days,  leaving  them  pos- 
sessed of  the  same  Christianity  as  that  of  the  Bible,  from  which 
Spaulding,  Kigdon  and  Smith  had  paraphrased  their  dime  novel,  Holy 
Writ.  All  this  while,  however,  the  Nephites  and  their  dusky  brethren, 
the  Indians,  were  at  war,  and  finally,  in  a  great  battle  on  the  hill  of 
Cumorah,  in  Western  New  York,  A.  D.,  384,  the  Christian  Nephites  wera 
nearly  annihilated. 

The  records  of  the  race,  which  had  been  written  on  the  plates  01 
gold  by  a  prophet  named  Moroni,  were  buried  in  this  hill  nearly  forty 
years  later  (A.  D.,  420)  by  Moroni,  who  had  survived  the  battle  in 
order  to  become  an  angel  and  appear  to  Joeeph  Smith  in  1823,  and  tell 
him  where  to  dig  in  order  to  find  and  re-establish  the  buried  faith. 
Such,  in  brief,  and  in  much  more  reasonable  language,  is  the  cheerful 
fiction  on  which  the  Mormon  faith  is  based  :  a  sort  of  garbled  Bible, 
well  mixed  with  the  fantastic  romance  of  the  vagabond  Yankee  preacher 
who,  having  started  by  writing  dull  and  innocent  novels  which  nobody 
would  read,  ended  by  unintentionally  establishing  a  religion  of  lust 
which  is  an  outrage  on  the  civilized  world. 

As  for  the  religion  Joe  Smith  and  his  fellow  sharpers  built  out  of 
this  romance,  it  is  as  fantastic  as  the  cause  they  offer  for  its  existence 
itself.  They  believe  in  a  God,  who  was  once  a  man,  and  grew  too 
pure  and  good  for  earth,  so  was  made  ruler  of  all  mankind.  This 
God,  they  hold,  was  married  in  due  form  to  the  Virgin  Mary  by  the 
angel  Gabriel.  Christ  was  the  offspring  of  the  union.  For  the  rest, 
it  would  puzzle  a  conjuror  to  make  clear  head  or  tail  of  the  Mormon 
doctrines,  except  that  Joe  Smith  was  a  god  on  earth,  and  that  any  man 
by  imitating  his  exemple  in  purity  and  holiness  can  become  deity 
himself. 

But  the  easiest  way  to  show  the  Mormon  doctrines  up  to  contempt 
is  to  let  them  explain  themselves.  The  following  are  the  articles  of 
faith: 


TEMPLE    MUMMERlLv 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  15 


1.  "We  believe   in    God,  the    Eternal  Father,  and  his  son,  Jesus 
Ohrist,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

2.  "We  believe    that    men  will  be  punished  for  their  own  sins, 
.and  not  for  Adam's  transgressions. 

3.  "We  believe  that  through  the  Atonement  of  Christ  all  mankind 
may  be  saved  by  obedience  to  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  Gospel- 

4.  "We  believe  these  ordinances  are,  1st,  Faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus ; 
2d,  Repentence  ;  3d,  Baptism  by  immersion  for  the  remission  of  sins ; 
4th,  Laying  on  of  hands  by  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  5th,  the  'Lord's 
Supper.' 

5.  "We  believe  that  man  must  be  called  of  God  by  inspiration,  and 
by  laying  on  of  hands  from  those  who  are  duly  commissioned  to  preach 
the  Gospel  and  administer  in  the  ordinances  thereof. 

6.  "We  believe  in  the  same  organization  that  existed  in  the  primi- 
tive Church,  viz.  :  Apostles,  Prophets,  Pastors,  Evangelists,  etc. 

7.  "We  believe  in  the  powers  and  gifts  of  the   everlasting  Gospel, 
viz. :  the  Gift  of    Faith,  discerning  of    Spirits,   prophecy,   revelations, 
visions,  healing,   tongues,  and    the  interpretation  of  tongues,  wisdom, 
charity,  brotherly  love,  etc. 

8.  "We  believe  the  word  of  God  recorded    in  the  Bible  ;  we   also 
believe  the  Word  of  God  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  in  all 
other  good  books. 

9.  "We  believe  all  that    God  has  revealed,  all  that  he  does  now 
reveal,  and  we  believe  that  he  will  reveal  many  more  great  and  im- 
portant things  pertaining  to  the  Kingdom    of    God    and    Messiah's 
second  coming. 

10.  "We  believe  in  the  literal  gathering  of  Israel  and  in  the  res- 
toration of  the  Ten  Tribes  ;  that  Zion   will  be  established  upon  the 
Western   Continent,  and    that  Christ  will   reign  personally  upon  the 
earth  for  a  thousand    years;  and    that  the  earth  will    be  renewed  and 
receive  its  paradisiacal  glory. 

11.  "We  believe  in  the  literal  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  that 
the  rest  of  the  dead  live  not    again  until    the    thousand    years   are 
expired. 

12.  "We  claim  the  privilege  of  worshipping  Almighty  God  accord- 
ing to  the  dictates  of  conscience  unmolested,  and  allow  all  men  ih& 
same  privilege,  let  them  worship  how  or  when  they  may. 

13.  "We  believe   in  being  subject    to  Kings,  Queens,   President 


16  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

Bnlers  and  Magistrates,  in  obeying,  honoring  and  sustaining  the  law. 
14.  "We  believe  in  being  honest,  true,  chaste,  temperate,  benevo- 
lent, virtuous  and  upright,  and  in  doing  good  to  all  men  ;  indeed, 
we  may  say  that  we  follow  the  admonition  of  Paul ;  we  believe  all 
things,  we  hope  all  things,  we  have  endured  very  many  things  and 
hope  to  be  able  to  endure  all  things.  Everything  lovely,  virtuous, 
praiseworthy,  and  of  good  report,  we  seek  after,  looking  forward  to 
he  recompense  of  reward  ;  but  an  idle  or  lazy  person  cannot  be  & 
Christian,  neither  have  salvation.  He  is  a  drone,  and  destined  to  be 
stung  to  death,  and  tumbled  out  of  the  hive." 


CHAPTER     IV. 

MORMON   POLYGAMY  AND   GOVERNMENT. 

It  will  doubtless  surprise  many  of  my  readers  to  learn  that  poly- 
gamy has  no  foundation  either  in  the  principal  of  faith  promulgated 
by  Joseph  Smith  and  the  founders  of  the  Mormon  gospel.  Polygamy 
not  only  fails  to  receive  their  sanction  but  the  "  Book  of  Mormon'* 
and  the  "Book  of  Doctrine  and  Covenants"  condemn  the  practice  in 
the  most  emphatic  language. 

The  sentiment  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  upon  the  subject  of  poly- 
gamy can  be  understood  from  the  following  quotation,  page  116 : 

"Behold  David  and  Solomon  truly  had  many  wives  and  concu- 
bines, which  thing  was  abominable  before  me,  saith  the  Lord,  where- 
fore I  have  led  this  people  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Jerusalem  by  the 
power  of  mine  arm,  that  I  might  raise  up  unto  me  a  righteous  branch 
from  the  fruit  of  the  loins  of  Joseph.  Wherefore  I,  the  Lord,  will  not 
suffer  that  this  people  shall  do  like  unto  them  of  old;  wherefore,  my 
brethren,  hear  me,  and  hearken  unto  the  word  of  the  Lord.  For  there 
shall  not  any  man  among  you  have  save  it  be  one  wife,  and  concubines 
he  shall  have  none." 

We  see  from  this  quotation  that  polygamy  is  not  only  pro- 
hibited, but  the  example  of  the  old  patriarchs,  which  the  polygamist 
sets  so  much  store  by,  flinging  it  in  the  face  of  the  decent  people  of 
this  land  as  an  excuse  for  his  crime  against  the  laws  of  God  and  man, 
is  here  declared  to  have  been  an  abomination. 

How,  then,  asks  the  reader,  did  polygamy  originate  ?      I   answer, 


MANY   TIMES   HE  STRUCK   ME  DOWN   WITH   HIS   FIST. 


f 


SHE  WAS  TYRANNICAL. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  17 

It  was  born  in  the  foul  and  lustful  brain   of  Brigham  Young   and  was 
grafted  on  the  faith  to  gratify  his  sensual  bestiality. 

In  August,  1852,  Brigham  Young  produced  a  document  before  a 
-conference  of  the  Utah  church, which  he  claimed  was  a  revelation  given 
io  Joseph  Smith  in  July,  1843,  commanding  the  church  to  enter  into 
polygamy.  No  explanation  was  given  for  keeping  it  concealed  for  nine 
years  except  that  it  was  nobody's  business.  This  paper  was  not  in  the 
handwriting  of  Joseph  Smith  as  all  similar  ones  received  by  the  church 
had  been.  To  account  for  this  fatal  defect  Brigham  stated  that  "Sis- 
ter Emma,"  the  wife  of  Joseph  Smith,  had  thrown  the  original  in  the 
fire. 

This  story  was  pronounced  a  fabrication  by  Emma  Smith, who  testi- 
fied just  before  her  death  that  she  had  never  seen  or  heard  of  any  such 
revelation  until  Brigham  Young  brought  it  forward  in  1852.  But  there 
Are  other  evidences  going  to  show  that  this  precious  document  is  a 
forgery.  This  pretended  revelation  is  dated  July  12, 1843.  In  it  poly- 
gamy is  commanded  under  pain  of  eternal  damnation,  but  on  Feb.  1, 
1844,  we  have  a  notice  published  in  the  "Times  and  Seasons"  that  one 
"Hiram  Brown  had  been  cut  off  from  the  church  for  teaching  polygamy 
-and  other  false  and  corrupt  doctrines." 

This  is  signed  by  Joseph  and  Hiram  Smith;  that  is  to  say,  the 
man  who,  according  to  Brigham  Young,  commanded  his  followers  to 
-embrace  polygamy  as  a  portion  of  their  creed,  a  year  after  the  pro- 
mulgation of  this  command  punished  one  of  his  followers  for  doing 
what  it  commanded. 

Brigham  Young  was  no  fanatic  in  religion.  Like  the  great  Napo- 
leon he  was  ambitious  of  creating  an  empire  of  which  he  should  be 
ihe  head.  To  gain  such  power  as  he  desired  and  to  gather  adherents 
.around  him  he  offered  men  such  inducements  as  have  not  been  within 
their  legitimate  grasp  since  the  old  Biblical  days,  that  is,  among  Eu- 
ropeans. How  greedily  the  bait  was  swallowed  is  now  matter  of  his- 
tory. Having  once  founded  his  dynasty  he  knew  how  to  render  it 
solid.  He  never  allowed  laboring  men  to  be  idle.  If  there  was  no 
work  to  do  he  would  create  it.  I  have  known  him  to  set  men  digging 
A  canal  in  order  to  keep  them  employed,  and  when  it  was  dug  he 
would  order  them  to  fill  it. 

Brig.,  as  he  came  familiarly  to  be  called   by  the  faithful,   was   as 

as  ever  Napoleon  was.     He  believed  that  wealth,  even  more  than 


18  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

knowledge,  was  power  and  he  allowed  no  man  to  become  too  rich  and 
thus  threaten  his  place.  As  soon  as  a  man  began  to  be  wealthy  it  was 
cunningly  suggested  to  him  that  he  ought  to  take  another  wife,  and 
another,  and  another,  so  as  to  keep  his  means  down  to  a  certain  point, 
and  no  one  could  rise  to  any  exalted  position  in  the  church  unless  he 
was  a  polygamist,  for  there  are  numbers  of  Mormons  who  are  no 
polygamists. 

Thus,  then,  polygamy  was  invented  by  Brigham  Young  partially 
to  gratify  his  own  lustful  instincts  and  partly  to  prevent  any  of  his  fol- 
lowers from  becoming  opulent  enough  to  be  independent  of  him  and 
his  commands. 

In  the  Mormon  church  there  are  almost  as  great  a  variety  and 
number  of  officials  as  it  takes  to  run  a  political  party.  But  for  all 
this  it  is  a  greater  despotism  than  the  government  of  Russia. 

The  head  of  the  church  is  imperial  master  over  all  Mormonism 
and  all  Mormons.  The  lives  and  property  of  his  followers  are  at  his 
command  and  they  bow  in  slavish  subjection  before  him.  Although 
they  profess  to  pray  to  a  God  they  really  pray  to  him  as  the  purest  of 
beings  alive,  next  to  God  himself  in  virtue  and  beneficence. 

Still  he  is  nominally  only  one  of  several  chieftains,  as  the  follow- 
ing explanation  of  the  government  of  the  Mormon  church  will  explain. 
The  chief  officers  of  the  church  are: 

The  Presidency.  —This  consists  of  three  individuals,  the  third  pres- 
ident being  also  Mayor  of  Salt  Lake  City,  Secretary  of  State  of  the 
State  of  Deseret,  and  Lieutenant-General  of  the  militia  of  the  Terri- 
tory. They  are  known  respectively  as  the  1st,  2d  and  3d  presidents  and 
constitute  the  supreme  power  among  the  Mormons  in  all  matters.  Brig- 
ham  Young  was  the  great  power  that  controlled  the  presidency  in  the  re- 
cent past  The  presidents  are  elected  by  the  people,  the  masses  of 
whom  regard  the  first  president  as  unsurpassed  in  wisdom  save  by 
God  himself.  A  simple  expression  of  his  wished  is  undisputed  author- 
ity and  is  obeyed  implicitly. 

II.  The  Patriarch. — This  official's  duties  consist  in  bestowing  pa- 
triarchal blessings  upon  the  faithful  who  desire  them  and  are  willing 
to  pay  for  them.  He  will  lay  his  reverend  hands  upon  the  head  of  a 
saint  and  blees  him  with  houses  and  lands  and  wives  (number  speci- 
fied) and  children  and  heirship  to  eternal  glory,  if  faithful.  These 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 


blessings  are  written  out  and  signed  by  the  patriarch  and   are  highly 
prized  by  the  ignorant. 

HE.  The  Twelve  Apostles. — Or,  as  they  style  themselves,  "Special 
witnesses  of  the  name  of  Christ  in  all  the  world."  This  body  ranka 
next  after  the  presidency.  The  apostles  ordain  subordinate  clerical 
officials,  baptize,  administer  the  sacrament,  supervise  missionary  labor 
and  are  the  chief  preachers  and  expounders  of  the  faith. 

IY.  The  Seventy. — Are  the  missionaries  out  of  the  first  seventy  ap- 
pointed. Seven  were  elected  presidents,  and  these  appointed  other 
seventies,  who  also  had  presidents  and  appointed  others,  so  that,  by  a 
species  of  exaggerated  compound  interest  the  number  of  missionaries- 
keeps  constantly  increasing.  The  missionaries  are  supposed  to  pay 
all  their  own  expenses,  but  they  don't. 

V.  The  High  Priest. — These  are  church  officials,  elected  principally 
to  do  the  first  president's  dirty  work,  as  they  can  officiate  in  any  office 
he  chooses  to  appoint  them  to  when  he  wants  his  will  carried  out. 

VI.  The  Bishops. — Although  they  bear   an  ecclesiastical  title,  are 
really  rather  temporal  officials.     There  is  one  appointed  to  every  Mor- 
mon settlement,  and  one  to  every  ward  in  Salt  Lake  City.     They  are 
collectors  of  tithes,  keep  the  census  of  their  several  districts,  and  set- 
tle difficulties  existing  among  the  saints,  when  they  can  do  so,  subject 
to  appeal  to  higher  authority.     They  are  supposed  to   administer  to 
the  spiritual  wants  of  the  people  of  their  charge,  and  visit  their  homes 
for  this  purpose.     In  Salt  Lake  City  there  is   a  chief  Bishop,  and  he 
is  the  channel  through  which  any  matter  of  business  the  Ward  Bishop 
may  be  unable  to    settle    to  the  satisfaction  of  the  parties,  or  any 
grievance,  must  be  communicated  to  higher  authority,  that  is  to  say,, 
the  First  President. 

VU.  The  High  Council. — This  consists  of  twelve  High  Priests,  with 
the  President  of  the  Church  at  its  head.  It  is  the  highest  authority 
to  which  parties  may  appeal  when  they  feel  aggrieved  by  the  decision 
of  their  Bishop  or  other  local  authority.  The- President  is  required  to 
give  the  decision  in  all  cases  brought  before  the  Council  when  the 
others  vote  upon  it 

The  reader  may  imagine  how  far  the  opinion  of  one  who  i* 
thought  incapable  to  err  has  to  do  with  the  vote  of  the  Council.  It* 
jurisdiction  is  confined  to  temporal  matters. 

Besides  the  officials   of  the   church  here   enumerated   there 


20  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

several  other  classes  knows  as  elders,  priests,  teachers,  and  deacons, 
tuit  as  the  duties  of  all  these  are  included  among  those  of  higher 
.grades,  and  as  they  interlace  and  overlap  each  other,  so  I  will  not  oc- 
cupy more  space  in  referring  to  them. 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  Mormon  scheme  of  Government.  No  matter 
-who  you  are,  or  how  serious  or  trivial  your  business  may  be,  it  is 
.subject  to  the  authority  of  the  Bishops,  who  are,  in  effect,  but  figure- 
heads who  act  through  higher  deputies  for  the  First  President  him- 
self. You  cannot  escape  him,  for  his  is  the  hand  which  governs  the 
machine  in  which  you  are  shut  up  to  furnish  the  motive  power  as  fire 
.and  water  are  held  imprisoned  to  keep  an  engine  going. 

In  the  pages  which  follow  the  workings  of  this  detestable  system 
-win  be  made  clearer  by  example.  My  purpose  in  explaining  the  Mor- 
mon hierarchy  here  is  to  simplify  a  comprehension  of  what  is  to 
<?ome. 

We  have  now  learned  the  origin  of  Mormonism,  its  principles  and 
its  method  of  enforcing  and  sustaining  them.  Now  let  us  see  how  the 
loathsome  weed  grew  into  a  a  rank  Upas  tree  whose  shade  cast  moral 
death  over  one  of  the  fairest  sections  of  the  continent 


CHAPTER     V. 

MOBMON       MIRACLES. 

The  first  issue  of  the  Gospel  of  Mormon  was  published,  as  we 
have  said,  in  1830.  The  book  dictated  by  Joseph  Smith,  with  the 
help  of  Sidney  Eigdon  and  Solomon  Spaulding,  written  by  Oliver 
<Cowdery  and  published  with  farmer  Harris*  money,  soon  attracted 
attention.  It  hit  the  taste  of  the  time.  The  villages  of  western  New 
York  were  just  then  in  a  ferment  over  new  religions  of  all  sorts,  and 
the  inventors  of  Mormonism  had  cunningly  contrived  their  work  so  as 
fco  please  the  many.  When  Smith  went  about  preaching  his  new  gos- 
pel he  found  many  followers,  and  as  these  joined  the  ranks  they  were 
Tnade  active  agents  to  extend  the  faith  too,  just  as  the  "Seventies"  are 
Increased  now. 

Missionaries  were  sent  out  all  around  to  proclaim  the  new  gospel. 
As  evidence  of  their  divine  authority  they  pretended  to  work  miracles, 
jjiarly  in  its  history  the  new  sect  was  subjected  to  rigid  persecution. 


ABBIYAL  OF  AN  INSTALLMENT  OF  WIVES  AT  SALT  LAKR 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  21 


Its  meetings  were  mobbed,  the  members  stoned  and  some  even  killed. 
This  only  increased  their  fanaticism,  and  Joseph  Smith  soon  enter- 
tained the  idea  of  establishing  a  temporal  sovereignty. 

An  excellent  example  of  the  means  Smith  used  to  make  converts 
is  given  in  the  following  description  of  a  "miracle,"  performed  in  New 
York  State  before  a  woman  whom  the  prophet  wanted  to  convert. 
The  story  was  told  by  her  to  me,  years  afterwards,  and  I  give  it  in  her 
own  language  as  I  then  wrote  it  down  : 

"The  room  in  which  the  Mormons  were  assembled  was  a  large 
oblong  hall,  with  curtained  windows.  The  furniture  consisted  of  a  few 
rude  benches,  and  a  table  resembling  a  huge  desk  stood  at  the  upper 
end,  on  which  a  small  candle  was  feebly  burning.  It  was  impossible 
to  form  anything  like  a  correct  calculation  of  the  numbers  assembled, 
on  account  of  the  obscurity.  I  could  only  perceive  an  indiscriminate 
mixture  of  men  and  women,  many  of  whom  were  fantastically  disguised. 
Some  were  seated,  others  standing ;  but  the  High  Priest  of  the  cere- 
monies had  not  yet  arrived. 

"  Smith  came  in  immediately.  He  was  a  tall,  graceful-looking 
man,  not  handsome,  but  of  imposing  appearance.  He  wore  black,  had 
dark,  piercing  eyes,  and  though  he  did  not  look  like  a  gentleman,  did 
not  look  like  the  sheep-stealing  vagabond  I  had  known  him  for  a  few 
years  before,  either. 

u  A  murmur  of  admiration  greeted  his  entrance,  and  he  smiled  at  it 
as  if  conscious  of  his  power. 

"  He  commenced  to  speak  and  the  utmost  silence  prevailed.  His 
discourse  was  on  the  nature  of  miracles.  I  observed  that  he  quoted 
more  from  the  scriptures  than  the  Mormon  bible.  The  sermon  was 
very  short,  in  order  that  more  time  might  be  employed  in  the  per- 
formance of  miracles. 

"  At  its  close  the  light  was  removed  from  the  desk  and  placed  in  a 
socket  directly  over  it.  Smith  then  knelt ;  the  others  followed  his  ex- 
ample, and  the  whole  company  remained  some  time  in  silent  prayer. 
At  length  he  rose ;  the  others  still  knelt  After  a  moment's  silence  he 
uttered  the  solemn  and  impressive  words  : 

"  It  is  my  word,  saith  the  Lord,  ye  shall  be  delivered  from  death 
firhich  is  the  power  of  the  devil,  from  sorrow  and  sighing.  Therefore, 
in  the  might  of  the  Spirit,  I  command  you,  bring  forth  your  dead  !' 

"The  deep  stillness  which  succeeded  these  words  was  awfully  im- 


22  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

pressive.  The  door  slowly  opened,  and  two  men  entered  bearing 
corpse.  It  was  the  body  of  a  young  and  beautiful  female,  clad  in 
white  habiliments  of  death,  and  looking,  Oh  !  how  ghastly  and  ghostly 
in  the  dim  obscurity  of  the  uncertain  light.  The  limbs  were  stiff  and 
rigid,  the  eyes  and  mouth  partially  open,  and  the  whole  aspect  of  the 
countenance  that  of  death.  The  ben-rers  stretched  her  on  the  desk. 
Smith  turned  to  them  with  an  expression  of  feature  I  could  not  fathom; 
Ward  stood  beside  him,  and  I  detected  him  glancing  more  than  once* 
at  myself. 

" '  Whose  child  is  this  ?  '  said  Smith. 
" '  Mine/  answered  one  of  the  men,  solemnly. 
"  'Did  she  die  suddenly?' 
"'She  did.' 
"'When?' 
"'This  afternoon.' 
"'Believest  thou?' 

" '  I  believe,'  said  the  man,  impressively, '  help  thou  my  unbelief/ 
"  '  Did  this  child  believe  ?' 
'"She  was  a  believer.' 
"  <  'Tis  well ;  thy  child  shall  be  restored.' 

"There  was  a  faint  shriek  from  the  group  of  spectators,  and  a 
woman,  whom  I  subsequently  ascertained  to  be  the  mother  of  the  dead,, 
rushed  forward  and  threw  herself  at  the  feet  of  Smith. 

"  '  Eestore  my  child,'  she  cried,  passionately  ;  '  she  was  too  young, 
too  good,  and  too  beautiful  to  die.  Restore  her,  and  I  will  worship  you 
for  ever.' 

"  '  Woman,  I  said  it,'  he  replied ;  then  turning  to  the  company  he 
said,  'let  some  one  of  the  sisters  look  after  this  woman,  she  must  not 
be  permitted  to  interfere.' 

"  Mrs.  Bradish  went  forward,  and  raising  the  woman,  led  her  to  a 
seat. 

" '  Let  the  believers  rise,'  resumed  Smith,  '  and  sing  the  Hallelujah 
Chant." 

"  A  moment  after  the  strain  begun,  low  at  first,  but  swelling  out 
wild  and  tumultuous  as  the  enthusiasm  increased,  and  the  passions  of 
the  assembly  were  brought  into  exercise  : 

" '  When  Nephi  came  out  of  Palestine, 
.and  Tebi  from  among  tho  heathen, 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  23 


The  great  and  mighty  ocean  was  driven  back  before  them; 

The  mountains  fled  away  ; 

The  hills  sank  in  the  lakes  ; 

And  the  rivers  were  dried  up. 

There  was  life  brought  back  from  death, 

And  souls  restored  from  the  grave, 

By  the  mighty  power  of  faith. 

Hallelujah ! 
And  it  shall  be  so  again, 

Hallelujah! 
Even  now  our  eyes  behold  it, 

Hallelujah! 
The  pale,  cold  corpse  is  waking, 

Hallelujah! 
Strength  is  returning  to  its  limbs, 

Hallelujah! 
We  shall  see  her  again  as  we  have  seen  hei 

Hallelujah! 
£n  the  pride  and  beauty  of  life, 

Hallelujah ! 
With  no  cerements  clinging  to  her  bosom, 

Hallelujah ! 
It  comes,  the  power  of  the  Most  High  God  forever, 

Hallelujah ! 
He  has  listened  to  the  voice  of  His  servant  and  apostle, 

Hallelujah ! 
He  has  arrested  the  might  of  death  at  His  bidding, 

Hallelujah ! 
As  He  did  at  the  bidding  of  Moses  and  Elijah, 

Hallelujah ! 
As  He  did  at  the  bidding  of  Christ  and  Saul  of  Tarsus, 

Hallelujah!' 

As  the  chant  went  on  voice  after  voice  tired  out  and  ceased, 
u  til  the  whole  ended  in  profound  silence.  Smith  meanwhile  stood  be- 
side the  apparently  dead  body.  He  pressed  and  stroked  the  head, 
breathed  into  the  mouth  and  rubbed  the  frigid  limbs,  saying  in  a  low, 
deep  voice : 


24  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 


"  'Live  thou  again,  young  woman.  Let  sight  return  to  these  eyes, 
now  sightless,  and  strength  to  these  limbs,  now  nerveless.  Let  life  and 
vigor  and  animation  inspire  this  wasted  frame.' 

"  Presently  there  was  a  slight  movement  of  the  muscles,  the  eyes 
opened  and  shut,  the  arms  were  flung  out  and  then  brought  together 
again ;  and  at  last  the  body  sat  up.  The  effect  on  the  assembly  was 
electrical.  The  mother  fell  into  violent  hysterics  ;  many  of  the  females 
shrieked,  others  sobbed. 

"  I  stood  gazing,  absorbed,  almost  incapable  of  sense  or  motion ; 
my  reasoning  faculties  altogether  at  fault  on  such  a  subject.  A  voice 
breatlied  in  my  ear  : 

"  *  Dost  thou  now  believe  ?  ' 

"  1  turned;  Mr.  Ward  was  at  my  side. 

" '  I  am  astonished,  if  not  convinced." 

" '  You  have  seen  the  dead  restored  to  life.  Look;  she  speaks  and 
walks.' 

"  I  looked,  it  was  indeed  as  he  said.  She  had  descended  from  the 
table,  and  with  her  grave  clothes  on,  was  making  the  circuit  of  the 
room,  leaning  on  the  arm  of  Smith.  Her  cheeks  were  flushed  with  life 
and  health,  her  eyes  sparkled  with  animation,  and  her  rounded  and 
voluptuous  form  contrasted  strangely  with  her  ghastly  habiliments." 

This  performance,  I  may  as  well  explain  here,  was  gotten  up,  as 
the  witness  afterwards  found,  exclusively  for  her  benefit.  The  girl  was 
no  more  dead  than  I  am  as  I  write.  But  these  miracles  were  well 
worked  and  they  made  many  converts.  I  remember  another  I  once 
heard  of,  told  me  by  an  old  lady  who  had  witnessed  it  in  Missouri 
where  it  occurred. 

"  There  were  two  families  by  the  name  of  Pulsifer,  both  believers 
in  Mormon,"  she  said.  "  A  child  died  in  one  of  these  families,  and  the 
Mormons  gave  out  that,  on  a  certain  night,  an  angel  would  come  and 
carry  the  body  to  heaven.  The  time  appointed  arrived,  the  relatives 
of  the  dead  were  assembled,  when  a  figure  in  white,  and  with  small 
bells  attached  to  its  garments,  appeared.  A  party  of  the  unbelievers, 
lying  in  ambush,  immediately  gave  chase.  The  figure  ran  for  a  neigh- 
boring swamp,  but  was  pursued,  taken,  stripped  of  its  angel  robes,  and 
proved  to  be  Pulsifer,  the  uncle  of  the  deceased." 

Smith  also  used  to  throw  people  into  trances,  for  he  possessed 
a  powerful  degree  of  magnetic  power.  This  not  being  understood  by 


HE   HAD   A   CHOICE   LOT. 


DEVOUT  MOBMONS  ON  THEIR  WAY  TO  THE  TEMPLE, 
BAIN   OB  NO   BAIN. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMUJXlbAl.  25 

ie  ignorant  and  credulous  masses  among  whom  he  practiced  went  foi 
a  divine  gift,  and  invested  him  with  tremendous  and  awful  importance 
in  their  eyes. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

JOE  SMITH  MOVES  WEST. 

By  the  beginning  of  1831  Joe  Smith  had  gathered  quite  a  follow- 
ing, but  his  doctrines  had  many  enemies,  and  he  was  so  open  and  so 
savagely  attacked  that  he  concluded  it  prudent  to  move  West.  He  set- 
tled on  Kirtland,  Ohio,  as  the  scene  of  the  New  Jerusalem. 

There  they  set  up  a  bank,  opened  stores,  and  went  on  making  new 
converts.  Churches  were  soon  established  in  Ohio,  Pennsylvania, 
New  York,  Illinois,  and  still  the  eyes  of  the  faith  turned  westward,  to 
the  great  prairies  where  they  hoped  to  be  allowed  to  work  out  their 
system  in  peace  and  freedom.  This  led  to  the  purchase  by  them  of  an 
extensive  tract  of  land  in  Jackson  County,  Missouri,  where  another 
colony  was  set  up. 

In  addition  to  the  burning  words  of  their  missionaries,  two  news- 
papers were  established,  one  a  monthy,  the  Morning  and  Evening  Star, 
and  the  other  a  weekly,  the  Upper  Missouri  Advertiser.  Industry,  en- 
ergy, sobriety,  order  and  cleanliness  were  the  rules  of  the  colonies. 
Polygamy  was  not  thought  of  yet,  and  the  new-made  Mormons  were 
enthusiastic  and  happy. 

After  Smith  had  established  the  colony  in  Missouri  he  returned  to 
Kirkland  and  resumed  work  at  converting  new  believers  and  perfect- 
ing the  organization  of  his  followers. 

But  here,  as  in  New  York,  he  had  to  submit  to  persecution  and 
violence.  Thus,  on  the  night  of  March  22,  1832,  a  mob  of  Methodists, 
Baptists,  Campbellites  and  other  miscellaneous  zealots  broke  into  the 
prophet's  house,  tore  him  from  his  wife's  arms,  hurried  him  into  an 
-adjoining  meadow  and  tarred  and  feathered  him.  Sidney  Bigdon  re- 
ceived similar  treatment,  and  was  rendered  temporarily  insane,  but 
Smith  preached  next  day,  "  his  flesh  all  scarified  and  defaced,"  and 
proved  the  folly  of  persecution  by  baptizing  three  new  converts  that 
Afternoon. 

The  Mormon  leaders  were  not  the  only  ones  who  came  in  for  per- 


26  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONI8M. 


sonal  affliction  at  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Any  man  was  liable  to  be- 
set upon  if  he  ventured  far  among  the  Gentiles,  nor  were  the  women- 
spared.  One  was  caught  on  a  winter  night,  tied  to  a  tree  and  buried 
Tinder  a  mound  of  snow  six  feet  high.  And  another  was  stripped 
naked  and  left  to  run  a  couple  cf  miles  over  the  icy  roads  to  the  near- 
est Mormon  shelter.  With  such  violences  as  these  did  the  unbelievers 
force  the  followers  of  Smith  into  a  closer  and  more  stubborn  adherence. 
to  their  leader. 

In  Missouri  the  colony  continued  to  prosper  too,  but  secret  soci- 
eties were  organized  against  it,  its  printing  press  was  destroyed,  and 
finally,  in  1833,  all  hands  were  driven  out  of  house  and  home,  across, 
the  Missouri,  and  forced  to  camp  in  the  wilderness  on  a  bitter  winter 
night  They  rallied,  however,  and  found  a  place  to  settle  in  Clay 
County.  There  they  remained  some  three  years. 

It  was  here  that  Brigham  Young  was  received  into  the  church,  and 
here  in  1835,  that  he  received  his  first  ofiice,  being  made  one  of  the 
apostles. 

Young  was  sent  East  to  drum  up  converts  among  the  Yankees,  and 
such  was  his  sagacity  and  force  of  character  that  he  managed  to  make 
many  proselytes  even  among  this  acute  people.  Two  other  famous, 
apostles,  Arson  Hyde  and  Heber  C.  Kimball,  were,  in  1837,  dispatched, 
as  missionaries  to  England,  where  they  made  hundreds  of  converts, 
from  the  masses  in  the  great  commercial  and  manufacturing  towns  and 
among  the  laborers  in  the  agricultural  district. 

All  this  gave  Mormonism  a  great  "  boom,"  and  Smith  began  to< 
view  the  future  with  the  eye  of  a  conqueror.  His  hundreds  of  follow- 
ers had  swollen  to  thousands ;  his  thousands  of  treasure  to  hundreds. 
of  thousands.  Small  parties  of  ruffians  no  longer  attacked  the  Mor- 
mons. They  had  to  fight  in  strong  bands  now,  or  run  a  strong  chance 
of  being  thrashed  themselves. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when,  at  the  end  of  1837,  the  bank  at 
Kirtland,  Ohio,  stopped  payment.  The  State  authorities  at  once  took 
action  against  Joe  Smith  and  a  couple  of  his  chief  followers  for 
swindling. 

At  this  opportune  moment  the  prophet  received  a  "  revelation."' 
The  reader  will  probably  note  by  the  time  he  gets  through  this  book, 
that  Mormon  leaders  get  revelations  just  at  the  right  time. 

This  "  revelation "  commanded  the  prophet  to  move  to  Missouri* 


THE    MORMON    EVE. 


A    YOUNG    WIFE'S    GLORY    DAYS. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  27 

thitlier  the  Ohio  colony  went  to  consolidate  with  the  resident  one, 
and  he  lost  no  time  in  obeying  it. 

The  Missourians,  however,  were  tireless  in  their  attacks  on  the 
•colonists.  The  truth  was  there  were  a  good  many  hard  cases  among 
the  Mormons,  and  these  committed  depredations  on  the  property  of 
the  Gentile  farmers  which  afforded  the  latter  excellent  excuse  for 
retaliation.  The  result  was  that  a  sort  of  guerrilla  warfare  was  kept  up 
that  began  in  time  to  assume  the  proportions  of  a  veritable  civil  war. 

In  the  course  of  these  troubles  Joe  Smith  was  arrested  by  the 
State  authorities,  along  with  Sidney  Eigdon,  and  locked  up.  He 
secured  his  release  in  1838,  and  immediately  had  another  "  revelation." 
Thanks  to  this  he  moved  all  his  followers,  to  the  number  of  15,000, 
across  the  river  to  Illinois,  where  at  a  spot  some  220  miles  above  St- 
Louis,  on  a  grant  of  land  which  they  had  obtained  in  the  vicinity  of 
ihe  town  of  Commerce,  they  founded  a  city  which  a  "revelation  "  told 
Smith  to  name  Nauvoo,  or  the  city  of  beauty. 

The  legislature  of  Illinois  granted  a  charter  to  Nauvoo  ;  a  body  of 
militia  was  formed  under  the  name  of  the  Nauvoo  Legion,  of  which  the 
prophet  was  named  commander.  He  was  also  made  mayor  of  the  city 
<and  thus  became  actual  as  well  as  spiritual  "boss." 

When  the  Mormons  settled  at  Nauvoo  the  land  was  a  wilderness, 
but  they  soon  had  it  blooming  like  a  rose.  A  future  of  prosperity 
seemed  before  them,  when  trouble  rose  in  a  new  quarter,  or  rather 
from  a  new  cause. 

This  was  a  rumor  that  the  Mormons,  in  addition  to  their  queer 
doctrines  of  faith,  were  also  practicing  polygamy. 

This  was  not  really  the  fact.  Eigdon  had  a  theory  about  "spirit- 
ual wives"  which  Smith  denounced  for  a  long  time,  but  ended  by  ac- 
cepting. According  to  this  theory  women  could  only  be  saved  through 
their  husbands,-  and  unmarried  females  must  ba  ever  debarred  from 
the  pleasures  of  the  blest.  Consequently  every  woman  had  to  be  pro- 
vided with  a  spiritual  husband,  and  as  there  were  more  women  than 
men  among  the  Mormons  Eigdon  and  those  who  believed  in  him  un- 
dertook to  make  the  odd  ones  sure  of  heaven  by  marrying  them  him- 
;self.  Smith  was  compelled  to  fall  in  with  this  idea  in  practice  and 
the  business  of  "sealing"  extra  wives  was  commenced. 

Polygamy  was  not  openly  advocated,  however.  The  spiritual 
wife  was  said  to  be  united  to  her  husband  by  a  purely  spiritual  tie, 


28  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

independent  of  all  sensual  relations  and  was  not  supposed  to  have> 
any  carnal  affinity  with  him  whatever. 

The  unbelievers  in  Mormonism  would  not  believe  this,  however,, 
and  serious  disturbances  broke  out  again. 

In  consequence  of  these  Joe  Smith,  his  brother  Hiram  and  some 
of  his  chief  supporters  were  arrested  and  thrown  into  prison  at  Car- 
thage to  await  trial. 

After  a  short  time  a  rumor  began  to  circulate  to  the  effect  that  the 
Governor  of  the  Stato  desired  to  permit  the  two  Smiths  to  escape* 
This  news,  true  or  false,  was  received  with  a  veritable  howl  of  fury.. 
A  mob  of  200  men  collected,  armed  to  the  teeth,  on  June  27, 1844.  They 
marched  to  the  prison,  forced  an  entrance  and  swarmed  in  upon  the 
prophet  in  his  cell.  The  father  of  Mormonism  fell,  riddled  with  balls,, 
and  his  brother  was  promptly  sent  to  join  him. 

Thus,  after  14  years  of  troublous  existence,  was  Mormonism  laft- 
without  a  head,  in  a  world  filled  with  furious  and  implacable  enemies. 

Thus  did  Joe  Smith,  sheep-stealer,  treasure-hunter,  wizard  of  the 
divining  rod,  having  gulled  and  swindled  his  way  to  notoriety  and 
power,  go  down  the  dark  road  by  the  same  violence  which,  in  the  end,, 
tnust  sweep  the  loathsome  faith  he  founded  from  the  earth  it  soils- 


CHAPTER   VII. 

BRIGHAM     YOUNG     STEPS     IN. 

We  have  already  introduced  the  man  who  was  destined  to  raise- 
Mormonism  to  really  vigorous  power.  Let  us  inquire  a  little  more 
closely  into  his  history.  Brigham  Young,  however  ignoble  and  de* 
testable  his  work,  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men 
in  American  history  and  daserves  more  than  the  brief  notice  we  have 
given  him  in  a  book  devoted  to  the  cause  whose  most  potent  and. 
sagacious  champion  he  was. 

Brigham  Young  was  born  at  Whittingham,  Vt.,  on  June  1,  1801.. 
He  was  the  son  0"  a  man  who  o^vnod  and  cultivated  a  little  farm  whick 
afforded  his  family  the  barest  and  most  miserable  of  livings. 

After  a  youth  of  poverty,  in  the  cours3  of  which  he  manage;!  to- 
secure  an  apology  for  en  education,  which  his  quick  wit  and  active 
intelligence  rapid  y  improved  upon,  he  began  life  as  clerk  in  a  country: 


THE  MYSTEEIES  OF  MORMONISM. 


store,  where  lie  served  out  sanded  sugar  and  watered  rum  as   prosaic- 
ally as  any  country  boy  who  ever  aspired  to  the  Presidency. 

But  his  spirit  was  restless  and  he  did  not  long  remain  behind  the 
counter.  As  a  peddler  he  roamed  around  the  country  vending  articles 
of  jewelry,  lottery  tickets  and  similar  articles,  the  whole  and  sole  end. 
of  his  endeavors  being,  as  he  expressed  it,  to  "take  care  of  number 
one."  At  last  he  became  a  devotee  of  the  Methodist  persuasion;  ex- 
horted the  sinners,  led  in  the  class  meetings  and  shouted,  sung  and. 
hallooed  with  the  mcst  orthodox.  From  Methodism  to  Mormonism 
the  conversion  was  an  easy  one  for  him.  He  saw  a  great  future  in  the 
new  faith  and  in  1832  embraced  it. 

He  was  made  an  elder  of  the  church  and  began  to  preach  at  the 
settlement  at  Kirtland.  In  1835,  as  we  have  described,  he  was  made 
an  apostle  and  sent  to  do  missionary  work  in  New  England.  The 
death  of  Joe  Smith  called  him  from  the  East  and  he  found  the  settlers- 
at  Nauvoo  in  the  greatest  agitation  and  confusion,  without  a  leader  and  . 
in  doubt  as  to  where  to  get  one. 

Not  that  there  were  no  aspirants  to  the  place,  for  Joe  Smith  had 
left  a  son  who  bore  his  name  and  of  whom  Joe  Smith's  wife,  Emma,, 
swore  his  father  had  had  a  revelation  that  he  should  be  his  successor.. 
Sidney  Kigdon,  too,  had  stepped  in  and  actually  assumed  the  Presi- 
dency. But  a  stronger  than  either  he  or  the  dead  prophet's  son  was- 
destined  for  the  place. 

Young  contrived  to  get  the  right  side  of  his  eleven  brother  apos- 
tles, however,  and  they  elected  him.  Events  proved  the  wisdom. 
of  their  choice. 

Joe  Smith  died  in  1844.  In  1045  the  Legislature  of  Illinois  re- 
voked the  charter  of  Nauvoo  and  the  Mormons  were  ordered  to  move 
out.  The  hostile  Gentiles  then  laid  siege  to  the  place  and  after  a. 
connonnade  of  three  days  Brigham  and  his  followers  struck  their 
colors.  All  they  asked  was  time  enough  to  get  somewhere  where  they 
could  molest  no  one  and  where  no  one  would  molest  them. 

The  Rocky  Mountains  were  in  those  days  almost  the  western 
boundary  of  the  continent  and  beyond  them  the  persecuted  Mormons 
resolved  to  seek  a  home.  Explorers  were  sent  out  at  once  to  look  for 
a  suitable  spot  to  locate,  and  brought  back  favorable  reports  of  the 
valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  which  had  first  been  explored  by  GeiL,. 
Fremont  in  1843. 


30  TEE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

To  Salt  Lake,  then,  Brigham  resolved  to  travel. 

In  February,  1855,  the  first  emigrants  crossed  the  ice-bound  Miss- 
issippi and  settled  for  a  year  in  Iowa,  preparing  for  the  journey.  In 
April,  1857,  Brigham  set  out  with  a  pioneer  party  of  143  men  for  the 
:new  Zion. 

In  the  fall  of  that  year  they  reached  Salt  Lake  Valley,  and  Brig- 
ham,  from  a  peak  of  the  Wasach  Mountains,  saw  the  country,  and  had 
a  vision  in  which  he  was  told  that  this  was  to  be  their  future  Zion, 
where  the  Temple  of  the  Lord  was  again  to  be  erected  never  to  be  re- 
moved, and  that  the  light  of  the  gospel  was  to  radiate  thence  to  all  the 
world.  That  fall  the  city  was  laid  out,  and  they  immediately  com- 
menced preparing  for  the  reception  of  the  hosts  of  Zion  who  were  to 
follow. 

Brigham  Young  returned  to  Iowa,  and  in  1848  he  was  confirmed  by 
a  General  Conference  of  the  Church  in  the  position  to  which  he  had 
been  called  by  the  people  on  the  occasion  referred  to.  In  the  same 
jear  Young  returned  to  Salt  Lake  City,  taking  with  him  the  great  mass 
•of  the  Mormon^. 

These  people  had  then  collected  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri, 
opposite  Council  Bluffs,  preparatory  to  their  migration  to  the  land 
which  Brigham  told  them  was  to  flow  with  milk  and  honey,  equalled 
only  by  the  Promised  Land,  which  Moses  was  allowed  to  look  upon 
but  not  possess. 

They  endured  great  hardships  on  the  journey,  and  intense  suffering 
after  their  arrival.  They  were  short  of  provisions,  and  before  they 
could  cultivate  the  land  they  lived  on  beetles  and  grasshoppers  and 
such  nutritious  wild  herbs  as  could  be  found.  They  were  very  poorly 
clad  and  without  shelter,  and  a  long  and  dreary  winter,  colder  than 
they  ever  before  experienced,  was  upon  them.  "Was  it  surprising  that 
they  murmured? 

But  out  of  all  their  difficulties  Brigham  Young  managed  to  de- 
liver them.  As  soon  as  it  could  be  done  the  people  commenced  agri- 
cultural pursuits.  But  when  the  husbandmen  could  not  work  they 
were  employed  in  other  ways,  and  such  as  could  not  labor  advantage- 
ously on  any  necessary  work,  were  made  to  labor  on  the  "Bulwarks 
of  Zion." 

Utah  being  in  the  very  centre  of  the  Indian  country,  the  Mormons 
"were  from  the  first  subject  to  savage  assaults.  Consequently  wherever 


WORKING   HARD   TO  SAVB   (?)   A   SOUI^. 


SAVED  ! 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  3i 


ti  settlement  was  made,  the  first  work  was  to  build  a  fort  Danger  did 
not  daunt  the  saints,  however.  Tiiey  could  fight  as  well  as  toil. 

Nothing  better  proves  the  ability  of  Brigham  Yo  ang  as  the  leader 
of  a  fanatical  religious  sect,  and  as  a  man  of  most  extraordinary  re- 
sources, than  the  management  of  the  migration  of  the  Mormons  and 
of  their  affairs  during  the  first  year  of  their  arrival  in  the  valley. 

At  that  time  Utah  was  a  part  of  Mexico.  By  a  treaty  between  that 
Government  and  the  United  States  the  territory  was  ceded  to  the 
latter,  and  in  1849  the  Mormons  met  in  convention,  adopted  a  constitu- 
tion which  they  called  "The  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Deseret,"  and 
.applied  for  immediate  admission  into  the  Union  under  it.  There  wag 
then  no  recognized  government  in  that  country  ;  but  the  year  follow- 
ing Congress  organized  the  present  territory,  and  Mr.  Fillmore,  who 
was  then  President,  appointed  Brigham  Young  the  first  Governor  ay 
-well  as  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs. 

From  the  organization  of  the  territory  in  1850  in  1857,  nothing 
.remarkable  in  the  history  of  the  saints  occurred.  Then  came  those 
events  which  led  to  the  invasion  of  the  territory  by  General  (theu 
•Colonel)  Sidney  Johnson. 

These  events  can  be  briefly  told.  The  Government,  when  it  made 
^Brigham  Governor,  appointed  also  District  Judges,  who  established 
United  States  Courts  in  the  Territory.  The  Mormons  viewed  them 
-with  much  suspicion,  and  finally  drove  them  out  of  the  State  in  1851, 
The  Government  then  suspended  Brigham  Young  from  his  office  al 
Crovernor  and  sent  Colonel  Steptole,  U.  S.  A.,  out  to  succeed  him.  He 
arrived  in  Utah  in  1854,  but  found  it  safe  to  withdraw  from  a 
•country  he  saw  no  chance  of  governing.  For  two  years  more  the 
Mormons  and  the  United  States  officers  wrangled,  till,  in  1856,  the 
Hatter  were  forced  to  flee  from  the  Territory. 

The  Government  now  appointed  Alfred  Cuming  Governor,  and 
sent  him  out  with  2,000  regular  soldiers,  under  Colonel  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston,  to  seat  him  in  power. 

Brigham  Young  refused  to  furnisn  supplies  for  the  troops  and 
issued  his  proclamation  declaring  martial  law,  and  calling  out  the 
militia. 

The  army  advanced  to  near  where  Fort  Bridger  now  stands,  when 
their  supplies  became  scant  for  the  winter.  While  there  Brigham  ad- 
dressed a  communication  to  Colonel  Johnston,  warning  him  to  leave 


32  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MOEMONISM. 


the  territory,  but  in  the  event  Colonel  Johnston  desired  to  remain 
oyer  winter,  he  might  "do  so  in  peace  and  unmolested, "  provided  he 
would  deposit  his  arms  and  ammunition  with  the  Quartermaster-Gen- 
eral of  the  territory,  and,  "leave  in  the  spring,  or  as  soon  as  the  roads 
would  permit  him  to  march." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  add  that  neither  modest  request  was  complied 
with. 

While  the  army  was  approaching,  the  Mormons  were  fortifying 
Echo  Canon,  to  prevent  its  penetrating  further  into  the  territory.  The 
only  act  of  hostility  committed  during  the  campaign  was  the  destruc- 
tion of  two  supply  trains,  belonging  to  Johnston's  army.  This  wa» 
done  by  a  band  of  horsemen,  supposed  to  have  been  commanded  by 
Porter  Kockwell,  who  figures  conspicuously  in  Mormon  history  as 
one  of  the  Danites,  or  "avenging  angels,"  and  of  whom  I  shall  write 
later. 

General  Johnston  was  not  acting  under  orders  to  attack  the  Mor- 
mons, and  this  act  of  hostility  would  have  been  a  most  excellent  pre- 
text for  accepting  war,  and  then  and  forever  settling  the  question  of 
Mormonism  in  our  country,  was  not  taken  advantage  of.  Neither  the 
defences  of  Echo  Canon,  nor  the  size  of  the  Mormon  army,  were  by  any 
means  the  cause  of  it  not  being.  But  the  army  was  short  of  supplies, 
as  I  have  already  said,  and  a  campaign  in  such  a  country  under  the 
circumstances  was  out  of  the  question. 

Johnston  remained  through  the  winter,  negotiating,  with  the  result 
that  the  Mormons  admitted  Governor  Cuming  to  his  seat.  The  troops 
remained  in  camp  till  1860,  when  they  returned  to  the  states.  The 
civil  war  diverted  attention  from  the  saints  and  they  had  pretty  much 
their  own  way  till  the  end.  Then  the  government  began  to  pay  some 
attention  to  them  again,  and  in  1871  went  so  far  as  to  declare  polygamy 
a  crime  and  arrest  Brigham.  He  was  released  and  died  on  August 
29th,  1877,  in  his  latter  years  having  been  much  curtailed  by  his 
powers. 

Brigham  left  17  wives  and  56  children,  and  a  fortune  of  $2,000,000 
to  support  them.  In  1874  one  of  his  wives,  Ann  Eliza  Young,  the  15th, 
had  received  a  divorce  from  him  in  the  United  States  courts. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  history  of  the  greatest  man  Mormonism  has 
ever  produced.  Now  for  a  glance  at  some  of  the  crimes  he  fathered. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  33 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  CRIMES  OF  MOEMONISM. 

No  history  of  a  savage  African  king,  throned  on  the  bodies  of  his 
slaughtered  victims,  is  blackened  by  more  shameful  crimes  than  the 
chronicles  of  Mormonism,  and  no  crime  in  Mormon  records  is  more 
atrocious  than  that  whose  anther  was,  in  1877,  shot  to  death  upon  the 
scene  of  the  massacre  he  directed.  I  allude  to  the  crime  and  the 
expiation  of  Bishop  John  D.  Lee. 

In  the  summer  of  1857,  a  large  train,  with  emigrants  for  Cali- 
fornia, consisting  of  men,  women  and  children  to  the  number  of  about 
one  hundred  and  forty  persons,  passed  through  Salt  Lake  City,  and 
proceeded  southward  on  the  usual  route  to  Los  Angelos,  when  they 
reached  Mountain  Meadows,  a  valley  in  a  sparsely  settled  country, 
about  three  hundred  miles  south  of  Salt  Lake  City. 

Their  stock  was  first  run  off  by  what  appeared  to  be  Indians,  but 
really  by  Mormons  disguised  as  such,  and  under  command  of  Lee,  who 
was  acting  by  Brigham  Young's  orders.  Their  enemies  making  hos- 
tile demonstrations,  the  emigrants  got  together  their  wagons,  and 
throwing  up  earth  about  them  made  a  work  of  defence. 

Their  assailants  occupied  the  hills  around,  and  fought  them  for  sey» 
eral  days  without  gaining  any  advantage.  Finding  it  impossible  to 
capture  them  without  serious  loss,  they  resorted  to  strategy  and  de- 
ception. 

Several  prominent  Mormons  took  a  wagon  and  went  around  so 
as  to  approach  the  emigrants  from  the  head  of  the  meadows  and  as 
they  did  so  exhibited  a  red  flag.  The  emigrants  recognizing  white  men 
in  the  wagon  allowed  them  to  approach  and  held  up  a  little  girl 
dressed  in  white  to  answer  the  signal.  The  Mormons  entered  the  fort. 
They  represented  that  they  had  talked  with  the  "Indians"  and  fonnd 
them  very  furious — determined  to  capture  the  party  at  all  hazards,  but 
that  they,  the  Mormons,  would  negotiate  with  the  "Indians"  for  terms 
of  surrender  if  it  was  desired. 

They  were  requested  to  do  so  and  after  a  short  absence  returned 
with  the  "Indians'"  alternative — the  surrender  of  everything  and 
their  lives  would  be  spared.  In  addition  to  the  purported  agreement 


34  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM, 

on  the  part  of  the  assailants,  as  their  part  of  the  treaty,  not  to  injure 
the  emigrants  personally,  the  Mormon  negotiators  proposed  to  furnish 
an  escort  of  forty  armed  men  to  conduct  them  back  to  the  settlements. 

Harsh  as  were  the  terms  they  were  accepted,  the  presence  of  help- 
less women  and  children  influencing  the  emigrants  in  their  decision. 
The  escort  arrived  and  the  unsuspecting  emigrants  abandoned  every- 
thing and  marched  out  of  their  fort.  The  women  and  children  were 
in  front,  the  men  behind  them,  and  the  guard  in  the  rear  of  all. 

In  this  order  they  marched  a  short  distance,  when  at  a  given  sig- 
nal the  "Indians"  rushed  upon  the  party,  shooting  dead  by  the  first 
Tolley  the  men  and  afterward  the  women  and  children,  except  seven- 
teen of  the  latter  who  were  supposed  to  be  too  young  to  tell  the  tale 
of  this  horrid  butchery.  No  injury  was  sustained  by  the  escort. 

Brigham  Young,  who  was  at  the  time  Superintendent  of  Indian 
affairs  in  the  territory,  made  no  allusion  to  the  massacre  in  his  annual 
report.  Nor  did  he  for  a  long  time  refer  to  it  in  the  pulpit  and  when 
he  did  so  it  was  of  course  to  deny  the  guilt  of  the  Mormons. 

Some  years  after  the  horrible  murder  Gen.  Carlton  marched  a 
column  of  troops  by  the  locality,  when  he  found  the  bones  of  the  slain 
still  bleaching  upon  the  meadow.  Here  and  there  lay  a  skull  with  the 
long  hair  attached,  indicating  the  sex  of  the  murdered,  and  inter- 
spersed with  the  others  were  the  small  bones  of  the  children.  Even 
then  an  officer  declares  the  sight  to  have  been  horrible  and  sickening. 
The  General  had  these  bones  collected  and  buried  and  over  the  spot 
he  made  a  mound  from  which  was  raised  a  wooden  cross  and  on  it  he 
placed  the  inscription :  "Vengeance  is  mine,  and  I  will  repay,  saith 
the  Lord." 

Not  long  after  Brigham  Young  visited  the  locality  and  about  the 
same  time  the  rude  monument  was  demolished. 

But  its  memory  lived  and  the  inscription  Brigham  caused  to  be 
wiped  out  was  prophetic.  Twenty  years  after  his  crime  had  been  ac- 
complished and  after  the  man  who  had  instigated  it  had  gone  to  his 
account,  John  D.  Lee,  in  September,  1877,  after  a  fair  trial  by  a 
United  States  court  was  led  out  and  fusiladed  on  the  very  spot  the 
blood  of  his  hapless  victims  had  enriched. 

Another  shocking  act  of  barbarity  was  the  slaughter  of  the 
Morrisites.  It  occurred  in  1862.  The  Morrissites  were  named  after 
their  leader.  They  were  Mormons  who  objected  to  Brigham  Young 


MORMON    HOUSEHOLD    DISCIPLINE. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  So 


~aad  who  set  np  an  independent  settlement  on  the  Weber  river.  A  dis- 
T*rt«  arose  between  the  Mprrisites  and  Brighamites  as  to  the  authority 
4>i  the  latter  to  impose  fines  and  levy  taxes  upon  a  people  who  claimed 
the  same  right  to  exercise  an  independent  government  as  had  those 
who  oppressed  them. 

For  some  offence  the  Morrisites  resisted  a  civil  officer  of  Brigham's 
government,  when  the  official  obtained  a  large  armed  posse  and  again  vis- 
ited the  settlement  to  serve  the  writ.  Foolishly  the  Morrisites  still  resist- 
ed and  retaining  the  fanaticism  they  had  acquired  under  Brigham  they 
were  presumptuous  enough  to  accept  battle.  Being  very  much  in  the 
minority  they  were  compelled  to  surrender  and  did  so,  giving  up  their 
arms.  The  Mormon  sheriff  then  rode  into  their  fort,  inquired 
for  Morris,  when  a  poor  old  helpless  fanatic  was  pointed  out  to  him, 
and  drawing  his  pistol  he  shot  him  dead  in  cold  blood.  Two  or  three 
of  the  party  were  murdered  in  the  same  way. 

Late  in  the  fall  of  1859  a  company  of  California  emigrants  num- 
bering eight  wagons,  ten  men,  twelve  women  and  a  little  multitude  of 
children,  halted  at  Salt  Lake  City  to  rest  and  refresh  themselves  and 
their  animals  preparatory  to  'crossing  the  Sierra  Nevada.  The  men 
were  shrewd  and  observant,  the  women  inquisitive  and  they  managed 
to  ferret  out  some  of  the  secrets  the  Mormons  did  not  care  to  have 
carried  away.  It  was  decided  to  put  them  out  of  the  way,  and  several 
of  the  saints  were  selected  to  accomplish  that  end. 

These  scoundrels  hired  themselves  to  the  emigrants  as  guides 
through  the  Sierra  Nevada. 

The  Sierra  Nevada  is  not  a  single  mountain  range,  but  a  succes- 
sion of  ranges  and  ridges,  and  ridges  alternating  with  narrow  glens, 
generally  filled  with  torrent-like  rivers  and  unfathomable  lakes.  Be- 
wildered among  these  mountains  escape  is  quite  impossible.  As  well 
might  one  attempt  to  find  his  way  to  the  open  air  through  the  intri- 
cate chambers  of  the  Cretan  labyrinth.  One  mountain  crossed  amid 
.all  the  horrors  of  snow  and  cold  and  fatigue  only  brings  you  to  the 
foot  of  another.  Unfathomable  gulfs,  frozen  lakes,  unmeasured  preci- 
pices are  before  and  around  you  and  the  most  horrid  of  deaths  is  the 
only  relief. 

Into  this  wilderness  the  Mormon  guides  led  their  victims,  leaving 
them  after  having  directed  them  not  to  the  West  but  to  the  North  ! 

The  snows  clos  d  around  them  and  it  was  finally  proposed  to   en- 


36  THE  j/y,s'777;V/:'S'  OF  MORHONISM. 

camp  and  remain  through  the  winter.  They  discovered  a  cave  open- 
ing on  the  sheltered  side  of  the  mountain,  whose  icy  pinnacle  glittered 
above  them  at  the  height  of  15,000  feet.  Drawing  their  wagons  up  to* 
the  entrance  their  goodn  were  unloaded  and  most  of  them  removed  to 
the  cavern,  while  the  cattle  were  turned  loose  to  browse  on  the  tender 
twigs  of  the  stunted  bushes  and  pick  the  scanty  tufts  of  grass  where 
the  wind  had  blown  the  snow  from  the  mountain  tops.  A  party 
of  five  men  went  forward  to  explore  the  route,  but  after  wander- 
ing hither  and  thither  for  nearly  a  week  and  subsisting  on  the  bark 
of  trees,  they  returned  to  the  encampment  no  better  off  than  when 
they  left  it.  Again  and  again  the  same  project  was  undertaken,  but. 
nerer  with  success. 

One  by  one  the  cattle  were  killed  and  eaten  and  occasionally  the 
hunters  would  bring  in  some  game.  These  resources  failing,  roots,  the 
bark  of  trees  and  even  grass  afforded  the  means  of  a  scanty  subsist- 
ence. But  the  cold  became  insupportable ;  the  ground  was  covered 
with  tremendous  snow  drifts,  snow  and  sleet  filled  the  air  and  obscured 
the  heavens. 

Some  took  to  their  beds  and  refused  to  leave  them;  others,  whose- 
enfeebled  and  emaciated  limbs  refused  to  support  their  weight,  crawled 
on  their  hands  and  knees  through  the  cold  and  snow  to  such  places  as- 
the  wind  had  left  bare  and  dug  with  their  stiffened  and  benumbed  fin- 
gers for  the  roots  of  grass  or  anything  else  that  could  preserve  life. 
Husbands  were  reduced  to  the. necessity  of  feeding  upon  the  flesh  of 
their  dead  wives,  and  mothers,  with  ravenous  appetite,  feasted  on  the 
mangled  bodies  of  their  children. 

When  spring  came  the  snows  melted  form  a  charnel  house  upon 
the  mountain  side.  Only  skeletons  remained  to  endorse  the  story  told 
in  triumph  in  the  Mormon  temple  of  how  the  enemies  of  the  church 
had  been  betrayed  to  death. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


THE  DANTTES. 


When  the  citizens  of  Carroll  and  Davis  Counties,  Mo.,  began  to 
threaten  the  Mormons  with  expulsion  in  1838,  a  "  death  society  "  wa& 
organized,  under  the  direction  of  Sidney  Bigdon,  and  with  the  sanction* 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  37 

of  Smith.  Its  first  captain  was  Captain  "Fearnot,"  alias  David  Patten, 
an  Apostle.  Its  object  was  the  punishment  of  the  obnoxious.  Some 
time  elapsed  before  finding  a  suitable  name.  They  desired  one  that 
should  seem  to  combine  spiritual  authority,  with  a  suitable  sound. 
Micah,  iv.  13,  furnished  the  first  name,  "  Arise,  and  thresh,  O !  daugh- 
ter of  Zion  ;  for  I  will  make  thy  horn  iron,  and  thy  hoofs  brass ;  and 
thou  shalfc  beat  in  pieces  many  people  ;  and  I  will  consecrate  their  gaifc 
unto  the  Lord,  and  their  substance  unto  the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth." 
This  accurately  described  their  intentions,  and  they  called  themselves 
the  "Daughters  of  Zion."  Some  ridicule  was  made  at  these  bearded 
and  bloody  "daughters,"  and  the  name  did  not  sit  easily.  "Destroying 
Angels "  came  next ;  the  "  Big  Fan "  of  the  thresher  that  "  should 
thoroughly  purge  the  floor,"  was  tried  and  dropped.  Genesis,  xlix.  17, 
furnished  the  name  that  they  finally  assumed.  The  verse  is  quite  sig- 
nificant :  "  Dan  shall  be  a  serpent  by  the  way,  an  adder  in  the  path, 
that  biteth  the  horse's  heels,  so  that  his  rider  shall  fall  backward.** 
The  "  Sons  of  Dan  "  was  the  style  they  adopted  ;  and  many  have  been 
the  times  that  they  have  been  adders  in  the  path,  and  many  a  man  has 
fallen  backward,  and  has  been  seen  no  more.  At  Salt  Lake,  among  them*, 
selves,  they  ferociously  exult  in  these  things,  rather  than  seek  to  deny 
or  extenuate  them. 

When  a  man  is  missing  at  Salt  Lake,  it  is  a  common  expression, 
"He  has  met  the  Indians."  Whenever  this  term  was  used  it  was 
understood  to  mean  that  the  Danites  had  been  at  work. 

It  would  require  a  volume  even  to  furnish  a  catalogue  of  the 
crimes  of  these  mysterious  and  deadly  bravoes.  The  following  are  a 
few  examples  of  their  work. 

Colonel  Peltro  and  Mr.  Tobin,  with  their  servants,  were  severely 
wounded  by  Mormons,  who  attacked  them  in  the  night,  on  Santa  Clara 
river,  370  miles  south  of  Salt  Lake.  They  lost  six  horses,  and  were 
compelled  to  abandon  their  baggage,  which  was  perfectly  riddled  with 
shot.  The  object  of  their  enmity  and  this  attempted  assassination  was 
Mr.  Tobin.  He  went  with  Captain  Stansbury  to  Salt  Lake  in  1851 ; 
then  met  Brigham,  and  admired  his  daughter  Alice  ;  was  engaged  to 
her,  and  left  Salt  Lake  on  business.  He  returned  in  1856,  and  renewed 
his  engagement  with  Miss  Alice ;  although  she  was  at  the  same  time 
Tinder  a  written  engagement  to  a  Mr.  W.  Wright,  whom  Brigham  sent 
off  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  to  get  him  out  of  the  way.  Mr.  Tobin  told 


38  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  3fOB3fONIS3f. 


Bie  in  California  that  he  had  the  most  convincing  proof  that  Miss 
Young  had  sacrificed  her  honor,  and  accordingly  refused  to  marry  her. 
For  this  Mormon  hated ;  for  the  influence  he  might  exert  abroad,  Mor- 
mon feared  ;  and  because  both  hated  and  feared,  he  was  nearly  Mor- 
.  mon  murdered. 

One  evening  in  November,  1866,  Dr.  Bobinson,  a  Gentile,  who  had 
lived  in  Salt  Lake  City  for  several  years,  and  practiced  his  profession 
as  a  physician,  was  called  by  two  men  who  represented  that  a  friend 
had  a  fractured  thigh.  The  doctor  immediately  dressed,  and  started 
on  what  he  supposed  a  mission  of  mercy,  and  after  proceeding  a  few 
squares  was  shot  through  the  head,  and  died  shortly  afterward,  re- 
maining unconscious  from  the  time  he  received  the  wound.  Mrs. 
Bobinson  knew  of  the  two  men  calling,  but  did  not  know  who  they 
were.  Notwithstanding  the  most  searching  investigation  on  the  par!' 
of  the  Chief  Justice  and  the  Governor,  no  clue  whatever  could  be  had 
to  the  murderers. 

Dr.  Bobinson  had  been  for  some  time  conducting  a  suit  against 
the  Mormon  authorities  for  the  possession  of  the  land  upon  which  the 
"Warm  Springs  were  located,  to  which  he  claimed  pre-emption  right. 
Brigham  Young  also  claimed  the  land,  and  as  usual,  Young  got  it. 

About  the  time  of  tlie  Bobinson  murder,  several  other  citizens  of 
Salt  Lake  narrowly  escaped  the  severe  vengeance  of  the  Mormons,  for 
an  offence  which  is  the  only  one  Dr.  Bobinson  is  known  to  have  com- 
mitted against  them — that  of  claiming  public  lands  in  the  vicinity  of 
Zion.  These  lands  had  not  been  surveyed,  nor  brought  into  market, 
and  the  parties  that  settled  upon  them  considered  that  they  were  sub- 
ject to  the  same  laws  that  govern  other  unsurveyed  public  land. 
Several  small  tracts  of  these  were  pre-empted  and  occupied.  Among 
other  settlers  was  Dr.  Williamson,  who  had  erected  a  temporary  build- 
ing on  a  quarter  section  near  the  Jordan.  A  raid  was  made  on  all  such 
about  the  same  time,  and  their  buildings  destroyed.  The  doctor  was 
caught,  tied,  and  wrapped  in  an  old  tent,  preparatory  to  making  a 
liberal  Jordan  his  entrance  way  into  eternity  ;  but  he  was  not  the  least 
disconcerted  by  their  conduct,  and  very  coolly  informed  tlio  mob  that 
he  would  prefer  that  they  should  "  shoot  him  as  they  would  a  dog, 
rather  than  drown  him  as  they  would  a  cat."  Whether  they  admired 
his  coolness,  so  as  to  induce  them  to  desist,  or  the  whole  was  intended 
as  a  scare,  I  am  unable  to  say,  but  they  let  him  go. 


YOU  PAYS  YOUR  MONEY  AND  TAKES  YOUR  CHOICE.' 


'•THOU  SHALT   JNCKEASE  AND   MULTIPLY, 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  39 

A  young  man,  who  had  visited  Utah  in  company  with  an  emigrant 
train,  became  enamored  of  a  young  girl  belonging  to  a  Mormon  family, 
though  not  a  daughter  of  the  house.  His  affections  were  returned 
with  ardor  by  the  lady,  whose  hand  had  been  demanded  by  a  Mormon 
elder,  already  the  husband  of  nine  wives.  Ignorant  of  danger  and 
intent  only  on  the  gratification  of  his  passion,  the  lover  remained  in 
Utah  while  his  friends  prosecuted  their  journey.  The  girl,  from  the 
commencement  of  his  attentions,  had  been  strictly  watched,  yet  love 
laughs  at  locksmiths,  and  they  had  concerted  a  plan  of  escape.  This 
by  some  unaccountable  means  was  betrayed,  and  the  eloping  lady 
leaped  from  the  window  of  the  room  in  which  she  was  confined,  not 
into  the  arms  of  the  youth,  but  those  of  the  man  she  loathed  and 
hated. 

But  where  went  the  lover? 

These  are  but  a  few  examples.  It  is  beyond  the  limit  of  our 
volume  to  give  more  than  a  suggestion  of  the  monstrous  outrages  on 
humanity  which  the  bravoes  of  the  Mormon  Church  were  guilty  of. 
History  has  recorded  many  of  them,  and  when  the  crash  comes  and 
the  Mormon  monstrosity  is  swept  from  the  earth,  there  will  be  men 
enough  found  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  a  power  they  no  longer  fear. 

One  other  fact  I  must  dwell  upon  in  connection  with  the  Danites 
though.  That  is  the  frequency  with  which  they  were  employed  against 
a  sex  whose  weakness  should  have  been  their  best  safeguard. 

Let  a  woman,  if  she  dare,  commit  such  acts  as  would  be  likely  to 
bring  polygamy  into  disrepute,  expose  the  weakness  or  sensuality  of 
an  elder,  or  manifest  a  disapprobation  to  the  existing  state  of  things, 
and  some  hideous  punishment  would  be  sure  to  be  hers — when,  where, 
cr  what,  it  would  be  impossible  to  tell,  though  none  the  less  hideous 
and  certain — t~at  is,  if  information  of  it  ever  reached  the  ears  of  the 
elect  and  sanctified. 

One  poor  woman  who  had  told  an  emigrant  in  the  hearing  of  a  Mor- 
mon elder  that  polygamy  was  a  system  of  abominations,  and  who  re- 
peated a  few  of  her  troubles  and  sufferings,  was  taken  one  night  when 
she  stepped  out  for  water,  gagged,  carried  a  mile  into  the  woods, 
stripped  nude,  tied  to  a  tree,  and  scourged  till  the  blood  ran  from  her 
wounds  to  the  ground,  in  which  condition  she  was  left  till  the  next 
night,  when  her  tormentors  visited  her  again,  took  her  back  to  her 
husband's  residence  and  laid  her  on  the  doorstep,  where  she  remained 


40  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 


till  morning.  She  remained  sick  for  a  long  time.  Her  husband's 
other  wives  refused  to  nurse  and  care  for  her,  and  she  finally  died, 
after  lingering  something  more  than  a  year. 

Another  female  was  suddenly  snatched  up  by  a  man  on  horse- 
back, when  returning  to  her  home  in  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  carried 
to  a  retired  place,  and  her  mouth  and  tongue  seared  with  a  red-hot 
iron,  though  they  refused  to  inform  her  in  what  she  had  offended,  and 
she  could  remember  nothing.  Having  thus  mutilated  her  they  carried 
her  fifty  miles  out  into  the  prairie  and  left  her  to  wander,  naked,  till 
she  starved.  She  was  found,  nearly  dead,  by  a,  party  of  emigrants,  and 
her  barbarous  torture  made  known  to  the  world  in  writing,  as  she  had 
lost  the  power  of  speech. 

Such  things,  I  may  add,  were  not  solitary  acts,  but  of  frequent 
occurrence,  and  the  female  part  of  the  population  were  in  a  state  of 
constant  apprehension. 

It  must  be  understood  that,  though  I  write  in  the  past  tense  of  the 
Danites,  their  organization  exists  to-day  as  strong  as  ever,  and  as  ready 
to  perform  the  functions  of  its  dark  office.  Porter  Eockwell  is  dead, 
"but  he  has  left  successors. 

Who  is  Porter  Eockwell  ?  Porter  Rockwell  was  the  most  dreaded 
leader  of  the  Danites,  or  "Avenging  Angels."  How  many  he  caused 
to  disappear  mysteriously,  or  be  killed  by  the  Indians  when  the  In- 
dians were  committing  no  depredations,  cannot  be  told,  but  Porter 
Eockwell  enjoyed  his  infamous  life  for  many  years  in  savage  impunity. 

In  his  latter  days  he  became  a  drunkard,  and  used  to  wander  the 
streets  of  Salt  Lake  City  looking  for  fight.  He  seldom  got  it  though. 
.Scores  of  men  who  would  willingly  have  shot  him  down  held  their 
hands  in  fear  of  the  vengeance  this  act  of  justice  might  invoke  on 
them. 

Blood  atonement,  all  denials  to  the  contrary,  is  practiced  to-day 
as  frequently  as  it  was  twenty-five  years  ago,  though  not  so  openly. 
There  are  no  Coroners  in  Utah,  and  when  a  body  is  in  death  it  is 
simply  buried.  Poison  does  the  work,  and  there  are  no  inquiries. 
When  a  man  gets  tired  of  his  wife  he  poisons  her,  if  he  anticipates  the 
least  trouble  in  obtaining  a  divorce. 

Mrs.  Maxwell  came  to  Salt  Lake  City  with  her  husband   in  1869 
Two  years   afterward  her   husband   took   another  wife,  and  one  year 
subsequently  he  was  sealed  to  a  third.     Mrs.   Maxwell  had  two  sons, 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MOEMONISM.  41 

aged  respectively  fourteen  and  sixteen  years.  Their  father  urged  them 
to  go  through  the  Endowment  House  and  become  Mormons,  bound  by 
all  the  oaths  of  the  church.  Mrs.  Maxwell  objected,  and  in  order  to 
prevail  over  her  sons  she  told  them  the  secrets  of  the  Endowment 
House. 

The  penalty  for  revealing  these  secrets  is  dismemberment  of  the- 
body,  the  throat  cut,  and  tongue  torn  out. 

Mr.  Maxwell  overheard  his  wife,  being  in  an  adjoining  room,  and 
forthwith  he  informed  the  Elders,  who  sent  for  the  unfortunate  woman 
and  her  two  sons.  They  were  taken  into  what  is  called  the  "  dark 
pit,"  a  blood  atoning  room  under  Brigham  Young's  house.  The 
woman  was  then  stripped  of  all  her  clothing,  and  then  tied  on  her 
back  to  a  large  table.  Six  members  of  the  priesthood  then  performed 
their  damnable  crime;  they  first  cut  off  their  victim's  tongue,  they 
then  cut  her  throat,  after  which  her  legs  and  arms  were  severed. 

The  sons  were  compelled  to  stand  by  and  witness  this  dreadful 
slaughter  of  their  mother.  They  were  then  released  and  given  twenty- 
four  hours  to  get  out  of  the  territory,  which  was  then  an  impossibility. 
The  sons  went  directly  to  the  house  of  a  friend,  to  whom  they  related 
the  butchery  of  their  mother,  and  obtaining  a  package  of  provisions 
they  started  ;  but  on  the  following  morning  they  were  both  dead. 

They  had  met  the  Danites. 

Created  in  the  most  sombre  secrecy,  this  infamous  organization 
was  from  the  first  a  shadowy  terror  known  only  by  its  works.  The 
real  calling  of  a  "  Destroying  Angel  "  is  rarely  known  save  among  his 
fellows.  To  the  bulk  of  the  people  to  whom  he  is  a  constant  menace, 
the  assassin  of  the  church  is  a  mere  spectre,  red  handed,  merciless 
and  deadly,  but  invisible  and  therefore  the  more  dreadful.  Your  mur- 
derer might  be  your  own  brother,  and  you  never  dream  it,  so  well  are 
the  secrets  of  this  shameful  order  kept. 

An  instance  of  this  :  One  day  in  Salt  Lake  City  I  was  out  walking 
with  a  male  relative,  and  a  man  stopped  us.  During  the  conversation 
I  observed  him  closely,  because  he  was  so  handsome — with  light,  wavy 
brown  hair,  skin  like  a  girl's,  and  beautiful  blue  eyes.  He  was  tall  and 
of  slender  build.  He  was  dressed  after  the  fashion  of  men  in  general, 
except  that  he  wore  a  large  sombrero,  which  he  kept  drawn  well  over 
his  face.  He  conversed  affably,  his  voice  being  noticeably  melodious. 
After  he  went  his  way  my  cousin  said : 


42  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MOEMONISM. 

"  Well,  you  have  seen  one  at  last." 

"One  what?"  Tasked. 

"  An  Avenging  Angel." 

"  Where,  where  ?"  I  said,  looking  around. 

"  Why,  the  man  who  has  just  left  us.  He  is  the  chief  Avenging 
An^el,  and  has  had  a  hand  in  the  bloodiest  deeds  that  have  stained  the 
record  of  this  Territory." 

In  after  years  I  was  fated  to  have  experience  enough  with  these 
men  of  blood,  and  the  very  one  I  met  that  day  was  destined  to  become 
a  persecutor  from  whose  ruthless  hand  chance  alone  saved  me. 


CHAPTER  X. 

SECRETS   OF  THE   ENDOWMENT   HOUSE. 

The  Mormon  Endowment  House  of  Salt  Lake  is  a  plain  adobe 
building,  two  stories  high,  built  like  a  small  dwelling-house,  so  as  not 
to  attract  attention.  There  are  blinds  to  all  the  windows,  which  are 
.nearly  always  kept  down.  It  is  situated  in  the  northwest  corner  of 
the  Temple  block  (which  includes  the  Tabernacle,  New  Temple,  etc.), 
and  the  whole  block  is  surrounded  by  a  very  high  wall. 

On  a  certain  day,  not  necessary  to  mention,  I  went  to  the  Endow- 
ment House  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  taking  with  me  my  endow- 
ment clothes  (consisting  of  garments,  robe,  cap,  apron  and  moccasins)- 
I  went  into  a  small  room  attached  to  the  main  building  (designated  by 
.the  name  of  reception  room),  which  was  crowded  with  men  and  women 
having  their  bundles  of  clothing.  The  entrance  door  is  on  the  east 
.side,  and  in  the  southwest  corner  ;  there  is  another,  next  to  which  the 
desk  stood,  where  the  clerk  recorded  the  names,  etc.  Around  the  north 
and  west  sides  were  benches  for  the  people  to  sit 

On  going  up  to  the  desk,  I  presented  my  recommendation  from  the 
bishop  in  whose  ward  I  was  staying,  and  George  Reynolds,  who  was 
acting  as  clerk,  asked  me  my  name,  those  of  my  parents,  when  and 
where  I  was  born,  and  when  I  was  baptized  in  the  Mormon  Church. 

That  over,  he  told  me  to  leave  my  hat,  cloak  and  shoes  in  that 
room  ;  and  taking  up  my  bundle,  I  went  into  another  room,  where  I  sat 
waiting  till  it  came  my  turn  to  be  washed. 


A  MORMON:  HOME  RULER. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  43 

One  of  the  women,  an  officiating  high  priestess,  told  me  to  come 
behind  the  curtain,  where  I  could  hear  a  great  deal  of  splashing  and 
subdued  conversation.  I  went,  and  after  I  was  undressed,  I  had  to 
step  into  a  long  bath,  about  half  full  of  water,  when  another  woman 
proceeded  to  wash  me.  I  objected  strongly  to  this  part  of  the  busi- 
ness, but  was  told  to  show  a  more  humble  spirit.  However,  when  she 
got  down  to  my  feet,  she  let  me  go,  and  I  was  turned  over  to  the 
woman  who  had  spoken  to  me  first,  and  whose  name  was  Bethsheba 
Smith  (one  of  the  widows  of  Apostle  George  A.  Smith).  She  wore  a 
large  shiny  apron,  and  her  sleeves  tucked  up  above  her  elbows.  She 
looked  thoroughly  like  business. 

Another  woman  was  standing  beside  her  with  a  large  wooden 
spoon  and  some  green  olive  oil  in  a  cow's  horn.  This  woman  poured 
the  oil  out  of  the  spoon  into  Bethsheba' s,  hand,  who  immediately  put 
it  on  my  head,  ears,  eyes,  mouth  and  every  part  of  my  body,  and  as  she 
greased  me,  she  muttered  a  kind  of  prayer  over  each  member  of  my 
body  :  My  head  that  I  might  have  a  knowledge  of  the  truths  of  God; 
my  eyes,  that  I  might  see  the  glories  of  the  kingdom ;  my  mouth,  that 
I  might  at  all  iimes  speak  the  truth;  my  arms,  that  they  might  be 
strong  in  the  defense  of  the  gospel,  etc.  She  finally  got  down  to  my 
feet,  which  she  hoped  might  be  swift  in  the  paths  of  righteousness  and 
truth. 

She  then  turned  me  over  to  the  woman  who  had  washed  me,  and 
who  whispered  my  new  and  celestial  name  in  my  ear.  I  believe  I  am 
to  be  called  up  in  the  morning  of  tne  resurrection  by  it  It  was. 
"  Sarah."  I  felt  disappointed.  I  thought  I  should  have  received  a 
more  distinguished  name.  She  told  me  that  the  new  name  must  never 
be  spoken,  but  often  thought  of,  to  keep  away  evil  spirits.  I  should 
be  required  to  speak  it  once  that  day,  but  she  would  tell  me  in  what 
part  of  the  ceremony,  and  that  I  should  never  again  have  to  speak  it. 

She  then  told  me  to  put  on  nay  garments.  These  are  made  in  one 
piece.  On  the  right  breast  is  a  square,  on  the  left  a  compass,  in  the 
centre  a  small  hole,  and  on  the  knee  a  large  hole,  which  is  called  the 
"  Stone."  We  were  told  that  as  long  as  we  kept  them  on  no  harm 
could  befall  us,  and  that  when  we  changed  them  we  were  not  to  take 
them  all  off  at  once,  but  slip  out  a  limb  at  a  time  and  immediately  dive 
into  the  clean  ones.  The  neck  was  never  to  be  cut  low,  or  the  sleeves 
short,  as  that  would  be  patterning  after  the  fashions  of  the  Gentiles. 


44  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

After  this  I  put  on  my  clotlies  and  in  my  stocking  feet  waited 
with  those  who  were  washed  and  anointed  until  she  had  finished  the 
remaining  two  or  three.  This  done,  the  little  calico  curtains  were 
drawn  aside  and  the  men  and  women  stood  revealed  to  each  other. 
The  men  looked  very  uncomfortable,  and  not  at  all  picturesque.  They 
only  had  their  garments  and  shirts  on,  and  they  really  did  seem  as 
t hough  they  were  ashamed  of  themselves,  as  well  they  might  be. 

Joseph  F.  Smith  then  came  to  where  we  were  all  waiting,  and  told 
us  that  if  "  we  wanted  to  back  out,  now  was  our  time,"  because  we 
should  not  be  able  afterward,  and  that  we  were  bound  to  go  right 
through.  All  those  who  wanted  to  go  through  were  to  hold  up  their 
hands,  which  of  course  everyone  did,  believing  that  all  the  good  and 
holy  things  that  were  to  be  seen  and  heard  were  yet  to  come.  He 
then  told  us  that  if  ever  any  of  us  attempted  to  reveal  what  we  saw 
apnd  heard  in  the  "  House,"  our  memories  would  be  blighted,  for  they 
were  things  too  holy  to  be  spoken  of  between  each  other,  after  we  had 
once  left  the  Endowment  House.  We  were  then  told  to  be  very  quiet 
and  listen.  Joseph  F.  Smith  then  went  away. 

In  a  few  moments  we  heard  voices  talking  loudly,  so  that  the  peo- 
ple could  hear  them  in  the  adjoining  room.  (I  afterward  found  out  in 
passing  through  that  it  was  the  prayer  circle  room).  It  was  supposed 
to  be  conversation  between  Elohim  and  Jehovah.  The  conversation 
T^as  as.  follows : 

Elohim  to  Jehovah :  "  "Well,  Jehovah,  I  think  we  will  create  an 
ep.rth  ;  let  Michael  go  down  and  collect  all  the  elements  together  and 
fqund  one." 

Answer  :  "  Yery  well ;  it  shall  be  done." 

Then,  calling  to  another  man,  we  could  hear  him  say : 

"  Michael,  go  down  and  cdllect  all  the  elements  together  and  form 
an  earth,  and  then  report  to  us  what  yon  have  done." 

Answer :  "  Very  well." 

The  man  they  called  Michael  then  left  the  prayer  circle  room  and 
came  through  the  room  they  called  the  World,  into  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  llie  door  of  which  was  shut  that  faced  the  places  where  we  were 
standing,  listening  and  waiting.  '  He  remained  there  a  second  or  two, 
and  everything  was  quiet.  At  the  end  of  that  time  we  heard  him  going 
back  the  same  way  to  where  Elohim  and  Jehovah  were  waiting.  When 
he  got  back  he  said,  "  I  have  collected  all  the  ebments  together  and 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MOBMONISH.  45 

founded  an  earth ;  what  wouldst  thou  have  me  do  next?"  Using  the 
same  formula  every  time  they  sent  him  down  to  the  World,  they  then 
told  him  to  separate  the  land  from  water,  light  from  darkness,  etc., 
and  so  they  went  regularly  through  the  creation,  but  they  always  told 
him  to  come  up  and  report  what  he  had  done. 

When  the  creation  was  supposed  to  be  finished,  Michael  went  back 
and  told  them  it  was  very  fair  and  beautiful  to  look  upon.  Elohim 
then  said  to  Jehovah  that  he  thought  ;they  had  better  go  down  and 
have  a  look  at  it,  which  they  did  and  agreed  with  Michael  that  it  was 
a  beautiful  place  ;  that  it  seemed  a  pity  it  should  be  of  no  particular 
use,  but  thought  it  would  be  a  good  idea  to  create  man  to  live  in  it  and 
cultivate  these  things. 

They  then  came  out  of  the  Garden  of  Edeii  (which  was  supposed 
to  have  been  newly  finished),  and  shutting  the  door  after  them  came  to 
•where  we  were  standing.  We  were  then  told  to  shut  our  eyes,  and 
Jehovah  said  to  Michael,  "  Give  me  a  handful  of  dust  and  I  will  create 
man."  We  were  then  told  to  open  our  eyes,  and  we  saw  a  man  that  he 
liad  taken  from  the  crowd,  standing  beside  Jehovah,  and  to  whom 
Jehovah  said :  "  I  will  call  thee  Adam,  for  thou  shalt  be  the 
iather  of  all  mankind."  Jehovah  then  said  ifc  was  not  good  for  man  to 
be  alone,  so  he  would  create  a  woman  and  a  helpmate  for  him.  We 
were  again  told  to  close  our  eyes,  and  Adam  was  requested  to  go  to 
sleep,  which  he  obligingly  did.  Jehovah  was  then  supposed  to  take  a 
rib  from  Adam's  side  and  form  Eve.  We  were  then  told  to  open  our 
eyes  and  look  upon  the  handiwork  of  the  Lord.  When  we  did  we  saw 
a.  woman  taken  from  the  crowd  who  was  standing  by  Adam's  side. 
Jehovah  said  he  would  call  the  woman  Eve,  because  she  would  be  the 
mother  of  all  mankind. 

The  door  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  was  then  opened,  and  we  all 
marched  in  with  our  little  bundles  (the  men  going  first,  as  they  always 
take  precedence),  and  we  all  ranged  ourselves  round  the  room  on 
benches.  The  four  sides  of  this  room  are  painted  in  imitation  of  trees, 
flowers,  birds,  wild  beasts,  etc.  (The  artist  who  painted  the  room 
was  evidently  more  acquainted  with  whitewashing  than  painting). 
The  ceiling  was  painted  blue,  dotted  over  with  golden  stars ;  in  the 
centre  of  it  was  the  sun,  a  little  further  along,  the  moon,  and  all 
around  were  the  stars.  In  each  corner  was  a  Masonic  emblem.  In 
one  corner  is  a  compass,  in  another  the  square,  the  remaining  two 


46  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

were  the  level  and  the  plumb.  On  the  east  side  of  the  room,  next  the- 
door,  was  a  printed  apple  tree,  and  in  the  northeast  part  of  the  room 
was  a  small  wooden  altar. 

After  we  had  seated  ourselves,  Jehovah  told  Adam  and  Eve  that 
they  could  eat  of  every  tree  in  the  garden  except  of  this  particular 
apple  tree,  for  on  the  day  that  they  ate  of  that  they  should  surely  die. 

He  then  took  his  departure,  and  immediately  after  in  came  a  very 
lively  gentleman,  dressed  in  a  plain  black  morning  suit,  with  a  little 
apron  on,  a  most  fiendish  expression  on  his  face,  and  joyfully  rubbing 
his  hands.  This  gentleman  was  supposed  to  be  "  the  demon."  Cer- 
tainly his  appearance  made  the  supposition  quite  easy  ;  by-the-bye,  I 
have  since  seen  that  same  gentleman  administering  the  Sacrament  in 
the  Tabernacle  on  Sundays.  He  went  up  to  Eve  and  remarked  that  it 
was  a  very  beautiful  place,  and  that  the  fruit  was  so  nice,  would  she 
like  to  taste  one  of  those  apples  ?  She  demurred  a  little,  and  said  she 
was  told  not  to,  and  therefore  musn't.  But  he  pretended  to  pluck  one 
of  the  painted  apples  and  give  it  to  her,  and  she  pretended  to  eat  it. 
He  then  told  her  to  ask  Adam  to  have  some,  and  she  did.  Adam  ob- 
jected strongly  to  tasting,  knowing  the  penalty,  but  Eve  eventually 
overcame  his  scruples,  saying:  "Oh,  my  dear,  they're  so  nice,  you. 
haven't  any  idea ;  and  that  nice  old  gentleman  here  (pointing  to  the 
demon)  says  that  he  can  recommend  them  and  you  need  not  be  afraid 
of  what  Jehovah  says." 

Adam  consented,  and  immediately  after  he  said,  "  Oh,  what  have 
I  done,  and  how  foolish  I  was  to  listen  to  you  !"  He  then  said  that  he 
could  see  himself,  and  that  they  kad  no  clothes  on,  and  they  must  sew 
some  fig-leaves  together.  Every  one  then  made  a  dive  for  his  apron 
out  of  the  little  bundles.  This  apron  is  a  square  half  yard  of  green 
silk  with  nine  fig-leaves  worked  on  it  in  brown  sewing  silk.  A  voice 
was  then  heard  calling  for  Adam,  who  pretended  to  hide,  when  in  came 
Jehovah.  He  gave  Adam  a  good  scolding,  but  finally  told  him  that  he 
would  give  him  certain  instructions,  whereby  he  would  have  a  chance 
to  regain  the  presence  of  his  Father  after  lie  ^as  driven  out  into  the 
world.  These  instructions  consisted  of  grips,  etc.,  and  the  garments- 
he  wore  would  protect  him  from  all  evil.  (Mormons  say  of  these  gar- 
ments that  the  pattern  was  revealed  direct  from  heaven  to  Joseph 
Smith,  and  are  the  same  as  were  originally  worn  by  Adam). 

They  then  put  on   their   caps   and   moccasins,  the  women's  cap* 


VKBILY,    HE  WAS  IN  LUCK. 


A   CANDIDATE  FOR   ADMISSION. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  4=7 

being  made  of  Swiss  muslin,  one  yard  square,  rounded  at  one  corner  so 
as  to  fit  the  head,  and  with  strings  on  it  which  tie  under  the  chin.  The 
moccasins  are  made  of  linen  or  calico.  The  men's  are  made  exactly 
like  those  of  pastry  cooks,  with  a  bow  on  the  right  side.  I  should 
here  mention  before  I  go  further,  that  Bethsheba  Smith  and  one  of  the 
priests  enacted  the  parts  of  Adam  and  Eve,  and  so  stood  sponsors  for 
the  rest  of  us,  who  were  individually  supposed  to  be  Adams  and  Eves. 

They  then  proceeded  to  give  us  the  first  grip  of  the  Aaronic  or  . 
Lesser  Priesthood,  which  consists  on  putting  the  thumb  on  the  » 
knuckle  of  the  index  finger,  and  clasping  the  hands  round.  "We  were  > 
then  made  to  swear  "To  obey  the  laws  of  the  Mormon  Church  and  i 
all  they  enjoin,  in  preference  to  those  of  the  United  States."  The  pe^ 
alty  for  revealing  this  grip  and  oath  is,  that  you  will  have  your  throat  ' 
cut  from  ear  to  ear,  and  your  tongue  torn  from  your  mouth,  and  the  ' 
sign  of  the  penalty  is  drawing  the  hand  with  the  thumb  pointing  toward 
the  throat  sharply  across,  and  bringing  the  arm  to  the  level  of  the  , 
square,  and,  with  the  hand  upraised  to  heaven,  swearing  to  abide  the  : 
same. 

We  were  then  driven  out  of  this  into  the  room  called  the  world, 
where  there  were  three  men  standing  at  a  small  altar  on  the  east  side 
of  the  room,  who  were  supposed  to  represent  Peter,  James  and  John, 
Peter  standing  in  the  centre.  He  was  supposed  to  have  the  keys  of 
heaTen.  Men  representing  (or  trying  to)  the  different  religious  sects, 
then  came  and  presented  their  views,  and  said  they  wanted  to  try  and 
save  those  fallen  children.  In  doing  this  they  could  not  refrain  from 
exaggerating  and  coarsely  satirizing  the  different  sects  they  repre- 
sented. 

Then  the  demon  came  in  and  tried  to  allure  the  people,  and  bust- 
ling up  to  the  altar,  Peter  said  to  him :  "Hello,  Mr.  Demon,  how  do 
you  do  to-day  !  It's  a  very  fine  day,  isn't  it  ?  "What  have  you  come 
after  ?"  The  demon  replied  that  he  didn't  seem  to  take  to  any  of  these 
*o-called  Christian  religions,  why  didn't  they  quit  bothering  after  any- 
thing of  the  kind,  and  live  a  life  of  pleasure,  etc.  ?  However,  he  was 
told  to  go,  and  that  quickly. 

Peter  then  gave  the  second  grip  of  the  Aaronic  or  Lesser  Priest- 
hood, which  consists  of  putting  the  thumb  between  the  knuckles  of  the 
index  and  second  fingers,  and  clasping  the  hand  around.  The  penalty 
for  revealing  this  is  to  be  sawn  asunder,  and  our  members  cast  into  the 


48  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MO  R  MONISM. 


The  sign  of  the  penalty  was  drawing  the  hand  sharply  across  the 
middle  of  the  body.  To  receive  the  grip  we  had  to  put  on  our  robes, 
which  consists  of  a  long,  straight  £iece  of  cloth  reaching  to  our  feet, 
doubled  over  and  gathered  very  full  6n  the  shoulder  and  round  the 
waist.  There  was  also  a  long,  narrow  piece  of  cloth  tied  around  the 
waist  called  "  the  sash."  It  was  placed  on  the  right  shoulde^.  to 
receive  this  grip.  The  people  wear  their  aprons  over  it.  The  men 
then  took  the  oath  of  chastity  and -the  women  the  same;  they  don't 
consider  polygamy  at  all  unchaste,  t>ut  said  that  it  was  a  heaven- 
ordained  law,  and  that  a  man,  to  be  exalted  in  the  world  to  come,  must 
Lave  more  than  one  wife.  The  women  then  took  the  oath  of  obedience 
to  their  husbands,  having  to  look  up  to  them  as  their  gods.  It  is  not 
—possible  for  a  woman  to  go  to  heaven,  except  through  her  husband. 

Then  a  man  came  in  and  said  that  the  Gospel  (which  during  those 
few  minutes'  intervals  had  lain  dormant  for  eighteen  hundred  years) 
had  been  again  restored  to  earth,  and  that  an  angel  had  revealed  it  to 
a  young  boy  named  Joseph  Smith,  and  that  all  the  gifts,  blessings  and 
prophecies  of  old  had  been  restored  with  it,  and  this  last  revelation 
was  to  be  called  the  Latter-day  Dispensation.  The  priests  pretended 
joyfully  to  accept  this,  and  said  it  was  the  very  thing  they  were  in 
search  of,  nothing  else  having  had  the  power  to  satisfy  them. 

They  then  proceeded  to  give  us  the  first  grip  of  the  Melchizedek 
or  Higher  Priesthood.  The  thumb  is  placed  on  the  knuckle  of  the 
index  finger,  and  the  index  finger  is  placed  straight  along  the  palm  of 
the  hand,  while  the  lower  part  of  the  hand  is  clasped  with  the  remain- 
ing fingers.  The  robe  for  this  grip  was  changed  from  the  right  to  the 
left  shoulder.  We  were  then  made  to  swear  to  avenge  the  death  of 
Joseph  Smith,  the  martyr,  together  with  thai  of  his  brother,  Hiram, 
on  this  American  nation,  and  that  we  would  teach  our  children  and 
children's  children  to  do  so.  The  penalty  for  this  grip  and  oath  was 
disembowelment. 

We  were  then  marched  into  the  northeast  room  (the  men,  of 
course,  always  going  first)  designated  the  prayer  circle  room.  We 
were  here  made  to  take  an  oath  of  obedience  to  the  Mormon  priesthood. 

And  now  the  highest  or  grand  grip  of  the  Melchizedek  priesthood 
was  given.  We  clasped  each  other  round  the  hand  with  the  point  of 
the  index  finger  resting  on  the  wrist,  and  little  fingers  firmly  linked 
together. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  49 

The  men  then  formed  a  circle  round  the  altar,  linking  tfa.eir  arms 
straight  across  and  placed  their  hands  on  one  another's  shoulders. 
<*The  priest  knelt  at  the  altar  and  took  hold  of  one  of  the  nien's  hands 
•and  prayed.  He  told  us  that  the  electric  current  of  prayer  passed 
through  that  circle,  and  that  was  the  most  efficatious  kind  of  prayer. 
The  women  stood  outside  the  circle  with  their  vails  covering  their 
faces,  the  only  time  throughout  the  ceremony  that  they  did  so. 

^Fhe  prayer  over,  they  all  trooped  up  the.  staircase  on  the  nortk 
,*ide  of  the  house,  into  the  room  called  the  Instruction  Boom,  where 
the  people  sat  down  on  benches  on  the  west  side  of  the  room,  tracing 
•them  about  midway  between  floor  and  ceiling  was  a  wooden  beam  that 
Went  across  the  room  from  north  to  south,  and  from  which  was  sus- 
|>ended  a  dirty-looking  piece  of  what  was  once  white  calico.  This  was 
called  "  The  Vail,"  and  is  supposed  to  be  in  imitation  of  the  one  in 
Solomon's  Temple.  On  this  vail  are  marks  like  thowe  on  the  garments* 
together  with  extra  holes  for  putting  the  arms  through,  and  a  hole  at 
<the  top  to  speak  through.  But  before  going  through  the  vail,  we  re- 
ceived a  general  outline  of  the  instructions  we  had  received  down 
.stairs.  This  over,  the  priest  took  a  man  to  the  vail  to  one  of  the  open- 
ings, where  he  knocked  with  a  small  wooden  mallet  that  hung  on  the 
wooden  support.  A  voice  on  the  other  side  the  vail  (it  was  supposed 
fto  be  Peter's)  asked  who  was  there,  when  the  priest  answering  for  the 
man,  said  :  "  Adam,  having  been  faithful,  desires  to  enter."  The  priest 
•then  led  the  man  up  to  the  west  side  of  the  vail,  where  he  had  to  put 
his  hands  through  and  clasp  the  man,  or  Peter  (to  whom  he  whispered 
Jris  new  name,  and  the  only  one  he  ever  tells,  for  they  must  never  tell 
their  celestial  names  to  their  wives,  although  the  wives  must  tell  theirs 
to  their  husbands),  through  the  holes  in  the  vail.  He  was  then  allowed 
to  go  through  to  the  other  side,  which  was  supposed  to  be  heaven,  and 
ihis  is  where  a  strong  imagination  might  be  of  some  use,  for  anything 
-  more  unlike  heaven  I  can't  conceive.  The  man  having  got  through,  he 
went  to  opening  No.  2,  and  told  the  gatekeeper  to  call  for  the  woman 
he  was  about  to  marry,  telling  him  her  name.  She  then  stepped  up  to 
the  vail.  They  could  not  see  each  other,  but  put  their  hands  through 
the  openings,  one  of  their  hands  on  each  other's  shoulders  and  the 
other  around  the  waist. 

With  hands  so  fixed,  the  knees  were  placed  within  each  other,  the 
feet,  of  course,  being  the  same,  the  woman's  given  name  was  then 


THE  MYSTERIES  01-'  MORMONISM. 


whispered  through  the  vail,  then  her  new  and  celestial  name,  the 
priestess  who  stood  by  to  instruct  the  woman  told  them  to  repeat  after 
her  a  formula  or  oath.  The  last  and  highest  grip  of  the  i&elchizedek 
priesthood  was  then  given  through  the  vail. 

They  then  released  their  hold  of  each  other,  and  the  priestess, 
taking  the  woman  to  opening  No.  2,  knocked  the  same  as  they  did  at 
the  men's  entrance,  ;:nJ.  the  gatekeeper  having  asked  "  Who  is  there,'* 
and  the  priestess  having  replied,  "Eve,  having  been  faithful  in  all 
things,  desires  to  enter."  Eve  was  accordingly  ushered  into  heaven.  , 

Before  I  go  farther,  I  must  tell  how  they  believe  the  entrance  into 
heaven  is  to  be  gained  on  the  morning  of  the  resurrection.  Peter  will 
call  up  the  men  and  the  women  (for  it  is  not  possible  for  a  woman  to 
be  resurrected  or  exalted  in  heaven  unless  some  man  takes  pity  on  her 
and  raises  her).  If  the  marks  on  the  garment  are  found  to  correspond 
with  those  on  the  vail  (the  dead  are  buried  in  the  whole  paraphernalia) 
if  you  can  give  the  grips  and  tokens,  and  your  naw  name,  and  are 
dressed  properly  in  your  robes ;  why,  then,  one  ha.j  a  sure  permit  to 
heaven,  and  will  pass  by  the  angels  (who  thoy  suppose  are  to  be  only 
ministering  servants)  to  a  more  exalted  glory;  the  more  wives  theyr 
they  think,  the  higher  their  glory  will  be. 

To  resume :  After  we  got  through,  we  saw  Joseph  F.  Smith  sitting 
at  a  table  recording  the  names  of  those  who  were  candidates  for  mar- 
riage. He  wrcte  the  names  in  a  book  (the  existence  of  which  marriage 
register  this  truthful  apostle  nas  since  denied,  so  that  a  polygamous- 
marriage  could  net  be  found  out),  and  then  he  wrote  the  two  names- 
on  a  slip  of  paper,  to  be  taken  into  the  sealing  room  to  the  officiating 
priest,  so  that  he  mij^ht  know  whom  he  was  marrying.  After  having; 
given  this  slip  of  paper  to  the  priest  (Daniel  H.  Wells),  we  knelt  at  a 
little  wooden  altar  (they  are  all  alike  in  the  Endowment  House).  He 
then  asks  the  man  if  he  is  willing  to  take  the  woman  to  wife,  and  the 
woman  if  she  is  willing  to  take  him  for  a  husband.  They  both  h;<ving^ 
answered  yes,  he  tells  the  man  that  he  must  look  to  God,  but  the 
woman  must  look  to  her  husband  as  her  god,  for  if  he  lives  his  religion 
the  spirit  of  God  will  bo  in  him,  and  she  must  therefore  yield  him 
unquestioning  obedience,  for  he  is  a  god  unto  her,  and  then  concludes; 
by  saying  that  he  having  authority  from  on  high  to  bind  and  loose 
here  upon  earth,  and  whatsoever  he  binds  here  shall  be  bound  in 
heaven,  seals  the  man  and  woman  for  time  and  all  eternity. 


A    "CULLUD"    MORMON. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MOBMO&I8M. 

He  then  tells  tlie  man  and  woman  to  kiss  each  other  across  che- 
altar,  the  man  kneeling  on  the  north  side  and  the  woman  on  the  south, 
and  so  it  is  finished.  Sometimes  they  have  witnesses,  sometimes  not ;, 
if  they  think  any  trouble  may  arise  from  a  marriage  or  that  the  woman- 
is  inclined  to  be  a  little  perverse,  they  have  no  witnesses,  neither  do. 
they  give  marriage  certificates,  and  if  occasion  requires  it,  and  it  is  to 
shield  any  of  their  polygamous  brethren  from  being  found  out,  they 
will  positively  swear  that  they  did  not  perform  any  marriage  at  all,  so* 
that  the  women  in  this  church  have  but  a  very  poor  outlook  for  being; 
considered  honorable  wives. 

When  the  marriage  ceremony  was  over  we  came  out  of  the  "sealing 
room."  I  crossed  into  the  ladies'  dressing  room,  where,  after  having. 
dressed  and  my  husband  paid  the  fees,  we  took  our  departure. 

It  was  3:30  P.  M.  when  we  left,  I  having  gone  there  at  8  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  You  can  probably  imagine  how  fatigued  one  feels,  after 
listening  patiently  all  the  time  to  their  incessant  talking.  I  should,, 
perhaps,  have  remarked  before  that  the  priests,  when  going  through 
the  House,  wear  their  ordinary  clothing,  and  come  straight  into  the 
"  House  of  the  Lord "  with  their  dirty  boots  on,  as  though  they  had 
just  come  off  a  farm,  while  we  poor  sinners  were  obliged  to  walk  in  our 
stocking  feet  lest  the  floor  should  be  defiled. 

People  are  generally  baptized  a  day  or  two  before  they  go  through 
the  "  House.?  I  was  baptized  the  night  before.  On  this  same  even- 
ing I  was  told  that,  as  I  was  going  through  the  "House  "  on  the  fol- 
lowing day,  I  must  pay  the  very  strictest  attention  to  everything  I 
should  see  and  hear,  as  it  would  be  for  my  benefit  hereafter.  I  was- 
obedient  in  that  respect,  for  I  remember  everything  that  happened  as. 
•vividly  as  though  it  were  yesterday,  and  if  it  has  not  been  for  my  ben- 
efit, I  hope  that  this  book  may  prove  of  some  use  in  warning  and 
enlightening  people  as  to  that  most  horrid  blasphemy,  jargon  and 
mummery  that  goes  on  in  that  most  sacred  "  House  of  the  Lord." 


52  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

MORMON  WIVES. 

The  most  fascinating  portion  of  Mormonism  to  the  general  outsider 
is  undoubtedly  that  in  which  the  Mormon  women  are  concerned.  The 
condition  of  the  Mormon  wife  has  been  frequently  described  by  both 
sides.  Let  these  facts  from  experience  speak  for  themselves. 

As  a  general  thing  women  are  wooed  in  Utah  the  same  as  else- 
where. At  the  same  time  there  is  a  class  of  girls  who  cast  about  and 
pick  up  a  husband  for  themselves.  When  I  say  a  husband  I  mean  a 
husband,  for  they  prefer  to  see  how  a  man  treats  his  wife  and  the  style 
in  which  he  supports  her  before  they  marry  him.  They  don't  care  to 
experiment  with  a  single  man.  They  select  a  man  of  wealth,  and  by 
means  of  the  confessional  of  which  I  have  spoken,  or  otherwise,  it  is 
made  known  to  him  that  he  must  marry  a  certain  girl.  It  is  only  just 
to  the  Mormon  women  at  large  to  say  that  this  sort  of  girl  is  in  the 
minority.  Polygamy  compels  her  to  remain  respectable  in  spite  of 
herself,  for  nowhere  is  a  lapse  from  virtue  more  condemned  than 
among  the  Mormons,  and  the  infidelity  of  a  wife  is  punished  by  the 
loss  of  caste  and  complete  social  banishment.  A  woman  can  only  be 
married  to  one  man  at  a  time.  Divorce  is  within  easy  reach,  but  to 
the  husband  de  facto  and  pro  tern,  she  must  remain  true.  A  case 
occurred  within  my  knowledge  which,  though  painful,  had  its  amusing 
side. 

A  man  had  a  wife.  Both  believed  polygamy  was  right,  but  when 
the  husband  put  it  into  practice  and  brought  home  a  younger  and 
handsomer  bride,  the  first  wife  found  it  hard  to  bear.  There  are  cer- 
tain things  very  galling  about  this  Mormon  custom.  The  first  wife  is 
expected  to  treat  the  new  comer  as  a  welcome  guest,  and  if  not  in  good 
circumstances  she  must  resign  her  sleeping  apartment  to  her — there's 
no  humiliation  spared  the  supplanted  wife.  She  must  not  only  get 
down  from  her  own  throne,  but  she  must  place  her  rival  upon  it ;  all 
of  which  the  wife  did  of  whom  I  tell  you.  She  set  her  teeth  so  hard 
that  no  murmur  escaped  them,  and  became  what  Mormon  women  all 
think  the  Lord  intended  they  should  be,  martyrs.  The  second  wife 
was  a  pretty,  addle-pated  little  creature,  who  had  only  married  Mr. 
Black  for  the  sake  of  a  home,  without  caring  for  him  in  the  least,  while 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  53 

the  first  wife  loved  him  devotedly.  All  went  quietly  for  a  time,  till 
Mr,  Black  attained  the  grand  object  of  a  Mormon's  ambition.  He  was 
given  what  they  call  a  mission  ;  that  is,  he  was  sent  abroad  to  prose- 
lyte. In  his  absence  the  two  wives  lived  together,  and  the  second  wife 
attracted  the  attention  of  an  inferior  man. 

The  first  wife  was  all  amiability  to  the  second  wife,  especially 
when  the  inferior  gentleman  called.  She  discreetly  withdrew,  and 
never  seemed  aware  that  the  two  had  fallen  madly  in  love  with  each 
other.  So  matters  went  on  until  the  return  of  the  mutual  husband- 
"Wife  No.  2  found  a  confession  obligatory.  The  husband  could  not 
have  been  more  astonished  if  the  heavens  had  fallen,  and  raved  more 
about  a  wife's  shame  and  a  husband's  honor  than  Othello  himself. 
"What  was  to  be  done  ?  A  husband's  honor  must  not  be  tarnished,  a 
wife's  faithlessness  must  be  avenged.  With  a  grim  smile  wife  No.  1 
saw  wife  No.  2  driven  from  home  disgraced ;  for  though  the  outraged 
husband  speedily  divorced  her,  the  inferior  gentleman  refused  to  make 
an  honest  woman  of  one  who  had  publicly  been  pronounced  the 
reverse,  and,  driven  from  pillar  to  post,  the  poor  creature  became  an 
outcast,  and  so  continued  until  her  child  became  a  beautiful  and  sturdy 
boy.  Taking  him  by  the  hand  one  day,  she  went  to  wife  No.  1,  and 
implored  her  to  take  him  and  rear  him  properly,  "but  do  not  separate 
us,"  she  said;  "give  me  shelter  too,  and  I  will  be  your  servant,  your 
willing,  uncomplaining  slave  until  death."  And  so  they  all  live 
together,  the  mother  in  the  kitchen,  the  son  in  the  parlor,  hardly  dar- 
ing to  speak  to  each  other,  the  divorced  wife  the  hard-driven  menial  of 
the  woman  whose  equal  she  once  was,  and  the  husband,  though  toler- 
atihg  her  presence  for  humanity's  sake,  never  permitting  her  to  speak 
to  him. 

I  was  invited  once  to  dine  in  Salt  Lake  City  and  was  introduced  to  a 
gentleman.  We  will  call  him  Jones.  I  was  also  introduced  to  twr 
ladies  named  Jones,  but  it  did  not  occur  to  me  until  I  was  told  after- 
ward that  they  were  both  married  to  him.  One  was  passe,  proud  and 
stately  in  bearing  and  appearance.  The  other  was  young,  very  pretty, 
and  seemed  to  shrink  at  the  sound  of  the  other's  voice.  She  flew  to 
obey  her  commands,  which  consisted  of  orders  to  wait  on  Mr.  Jones. 
"  Emma,"  she  would  say,  "  hand  George  this,  hand  George  that ;  get 
George's  hat ;  get  George's  cane  ;  fetch  George's  gloves,"  <fec.  ^ 

As  I  have  said  before,  the  first  wife  is  mistress  of  all  the  others* 


54  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MOBMONISM. 


and  they  are  forced  to  obey  her  as  abjectively  as  slaves.  Emma  wa* 
the  second  wife  of  Jones,  and  the  wife  ruled  her  with  a  rod  of  iron. 
There  was  no  tyranny  she  did  not  inflict  upon  her,  no  mean,  merciless 
grinding  under  foot  that  she  did  not  exercise.  Jones  left  them  to  fight 
it  out.  So  hideous  was  the  first  wife's  treatment  of  the  second  that 
she  finally  went  crazy,  and  had  to  be  confined  in  an  asylum.  Mrs* 
Jones  the  first  urbanely  gave  Mr.  Jones  permission  to  bring  home  any 
number  of  young  and  pretty  wives,  but  at  latest  dates  he  had  not 
availed  himself  of  her  kindness. 

Fighting  it  out  reminds  me  of  a  young  fellow  who  had  a  pretty 
young  wife,  but  soon  began  to  pay  his  addresses  to  a  young  lady.  He 
took  the  latter  on  a  little  excursion,  on  which,  as  it  happened,  his  wife 
had  gone.  They  met,  and,  as  the  wife  had  had  no  intimation  of  what 
he  was  contemplating,  she  began  to  make  a  scene,  just  as  a  Gentile 
wife  would.  He  hurried  both  ladies  into  a  room  in  a  rustic  hotel  oi^> 
the  pretext  of  talking  it  over  quietly.  As  soon  as  he  got  them  there  he 
slipped  out,  locked  them  in,  and  gave  orders  below  that  no  one  shoul<| 
let  them  out  or  pay  any  attention  to  their  cries  for  assistance.  The 
day  went  on,  and  the  husband  enjoyed  himself,  but  the  women  fough^ 
and  stormed  and  went  into  hysterics  and  fainted  and  recovered  awf* 
finally  got  air  fully  hungry.  In  vain  they  shouted  and  begged  to  be 
release^.  Then  they  wept  and  made  up,  and  when  the  husband  came 
and  demanded  through  the  keyhole  if  they  were  good  friends  an(| 
would  like  something  to  eat,  they  both  said  "  Yes  :'  meekly  to  all  hi^ 
questions.  Then  he  unlocked  the  door,  and  they  went  and  had  a  cosey 
little  dinner  together,  and  when  he  married  the  young  lady  they  were 
all  happy  ever  after,  that  is  if  you  can  believe  the  husband  and  the 
priests. 

These  sensible  marriages  are  not  always  so  arbitrarily  made, 
though.  I  knew  two  schoolmates  who  vowed  that  nothing  would  ever 
part  them — neither  marriage  nor  death.  When  one  received  an  eligi- 
ble offer  of  marriage  she  would  only  accept  it  on  condition  that  her 
husband  should  marry  her  friend  before  the  honeymoon  was  over.  He 
promised,  hoping  that  she  would  change  her  mind,  but  she  did  not? 
and  in  three  weeks'  time  there  was  a  second  wedding.  The  two  friends 
were  thus  happily  united  for  life.  Truly  the  ways  of  Mormon  womea 
pass  all  understanding.  I  knew  one  man  who  married  two  sisters  at 
the  same  time,  one  ceremony  sufficing  to  make  him  the  husband  of  both. 


THE  WIVES  OP  A  WEALTHY  MOJtMON. 


THE  WIVES  OF  A  POOR  MOEMON. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  55 

Although  all  women  work  in  the  Territory,  their  work  is  seldom 
of  a  character  to  increase  wealth,  and,  as  each  wife  must  have  her  sep- 
arate rooms  or  house  and  a  stipulated  allowance  to  live  upon,  it  can 
readily  be  seen  that  polygamy  was  an  ingenious  device  to  keep  men 
from  amassing  wealth.  I  remember  well  a  case  in  point.  The  editor 
of  a  certain  paper  was  allowed  to  live  in  peace  and  happiness  with  his 
only  wife  until  the  growing  influence  of  the  journal  and  the  emoluments 
therefrom  attracted  Brigham's  attention.  The  editor  was  informed  one 
day  that  he  had  too  long  neglected  the  religious  rites  of  the  church — 
that  he  must  take  another  wife.  The  editor  did  not  want  to,  and,  as 
may  be  supposed,  ne'ther  was  his  wife  anxious  that  he  should.  But 
there  was  no  resisting  Brigham.  It  must  be  done.  The  wife  and  hus- 
band were  tenderly  attached.  They  desired  to  keep  their  means  for 
the  education  and  future  maintenance  of  their  only  son,  but  their  pri 
vate  wishes  availed  nothing.  A  young  girl  was  selected  as  the  second 
wife,  and  a  wing  was  built  to  their  house.  The  wife  fell  sick  with 
grieving  and  with  jealous  torture.  As  she  lay  for  weeks  on  her  bed  she 
could  hear  the  hammering  going  on,  and  listened  with  the  same  feel- 
ings that  a  condemned  man  hears  the  erection  of  the  scaffold  on  which 
he  is  to  be  executed.  But  being  a  true  Mormon,  and  believing  like  her 
Tiusband  that  he  was  only  performing  a  religious  duty,  she  prayed  for 
resignation  and  submission.  She  succeeded  so  well  that  she  was  able 
io  attend  the  wedding,  and  give  the  bride  away,  as  it  were,  but  after 
that  matters  did  not  work  well.  Although  the  first  wife  tried  hard  to 
keep  the  peace,  the  second  wife  was  a  virago,  and  jealous  of  the  love 
that  the  husband  had  evidently  not  transferred. 

For  some  time  the  two  wives  lived,  one  in  one  wing  of  the  house, 
the  other  in  the  other.  They  would  meet  in  the  back  yard,  common  to 
Tjoth,  several  times  daily,  but  without  speaking.  After  the  birth  of  a 
son  to  the  second  wife,  her  temper,  because  she  could  not  entirely  sup- 
plant the  first  wife,  became  so  unbearable  that  the  unlucky  editor 
implored  Young  to  grant  him  a  divorce.  After  that  the  second  wife 
went  to  what  is  popularly  known  as  the  bad.  The  husband  induced 
lier  to  give  the  child  into  the  keeping  of  the  first  wife.  The  two  boys 
have  been  reared  as  brothers,  and  no  other  wife  has  since  disturbed 
the  harmony  of  the  little  household. 

.,   Divorce   is  granted   for   infidelity  and   ill-treatment.     In   church 
divorces  the  defendant  is  generally  reprimanded  for  the  first  offence. 


66  THE  MYSTEltlLti  OF  MUltMOXISX. 


A  Mormon  is  not  granted  a  divorce  except  for  good  cause,  and  being, 
simply  tired  of  a  woman  is  not  considered  sufficient,  but  no  Mormon 
of  influence  is  unable  to  obtain  a  divorce,  cause  or  not,  if  lie  wants  it 

As  the  Mormons  are  a  most  prolific  people,  every  divorced  woman 
having  two  or  three  children  by  a  different  husband,  and  the  husband 
having  so  many  children  by  different  wives,  their  relations  sometimes 
get  so  mixed  that  no  one  could  understand  them.  One  man  I  was 
acquainted  with  married  a  divorced  woman  with  three  little  girls,  all 
under  the  age  of  seven.  When  the  girls  grew  up  he  married  all  three,, 
thus  becoming  the  husband  of  four  women,  though  he  had  but  one 
mother-in-law,  that  mother-in-law  being  his  own  wife.  But  this  i& 
easy  compared  to  some  of  their  problems  of  relationship,  which  they 
almost  go  crazy  themselves  trying  to  work  out.  Here,  for  example  : 
A  man  married  a  woman  with  a  daughter  nearly  grown.  When  she 
reached  vomanhpod,  she  was  married  to  the  father  of  her  mother's 
husband,  making  him  his  step-daughter's  step-son,  and  when  a  son. 
was  b:;rn  to  the  father,  the  mother's  husband  became  half  brother  to 
his  own  grandchild.  The  original  pair  also  had  a  child — but  this  is- 
getting  so  mixed,  like  everything  else  in  Utah,  that  I  leave  it  to  wiser 
heads  than  mine  to  work  out. 

Of  the  men  who  first  went  to  the  Territory  it  is  estimated  that- 
they  averaged  forty  children  each.  Orson  Pratt,  when  I  last  saw  him,. 
was  about  80  years  of  age.  He  had  more  wives  than  any  of  them.  Oa 
a  little  farm  about  fifteen  miles  from  Salt  Lake  City,  I  saw  his  last  wife. 
She  was  a  fine  woman,  about  28  years  of  age,  with  three  or  four  little 
towheaded  children  running  about.  She  was  terribly  ignorant,  while 
he  was  the  most  learned  man  in  the  Territory.  Coming  into  the  city 
the  same  day,  I  met  three  beautifully  dressed,  and,  I  was  informed,, 
finely  educated  elderly  ladies.  They  were  pointed  out  to  me  as  Orson 
Pratt's  wives.  A  day  or  two  after  I  got  into  a  street  car.  It  was  so- 
loaded  down  entirely  by  ladies  that  I  had  to  stand.  They  were  all 
Orson  Pratt's  wives.  A  few  of  them  went  on  an  excursion  one  day, 
leaving  the  children  behind.  There  were  four  wagon  loads  of  Orson. 
Pratt's  wives,  and  I  began  to  think  they  were  as  countless  as  the  sands 
of  the  seashore. 

While  old  men  invariably  select  young  women  as  wives,  they  often 
make  a  concession  to  a  daughter  and  marry  her  mother  at  the  same 
time,  so  as  not  to  separate  them,  and  a  young  man  will  often  take 


THE    MORMON    REBECCA, 


I 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MOEMONISM.  *  «T ' 3 

mother  and  grandmother  along  with  the  daughter.     Literally  in  Utah 
men  frequently  marry  a: whole  family.     A  wife  getting  old  is  6ften  gla<l  '"* 
id  have  her  husband  marry  her  daughter  by  another  husband;  so  that  ' 
the  original  wife  may  not  be  ousted  from  her  privileges  and  a  comfort-  * 
able  home.  *  •  . 

It  is  a  custom  in  Utah  to   call  a  woman  after  her  husband's  first 
name,  in  order  to  distinguish  her.     For  instance,  :  the  wife   of  John  "• 
Young  is  called  Libbie*  John,  and  not  Mrs.  John  Young.-    Brigham  had 
only  two  sons  by  his  first  wife,  Brigham  and  this  John,  the  Jroungest,  ^ 
No  fairy  prince  in  the  "Arabian  Nights"  was  ever  handsomer  than  > 
John.     He  was   the   one  who  went  East,  renounced  Mormonism,  and  ' 
divorced  two  wives  for  the  sake  of  marrying  the  daughter  of  a  Phila^  " 
delphia  physician. 

Up  to  a  certain  point   the   history  of  John  and  iLibbie  is  well 
known;  how  she  separated  from  him  when,  violating  his  promise  to ' 
have  no  wife  but  her,  he   married  again.     As  she  is  stillhis  wife,  he  ' 
supports  her,  she  going  backward  and  forward  between  the  States  and 
the  Territory  to  meet  him.     She  has  obtained  a  great  deal  of  praise  for  • 
her  spirited  action  in  leaving  him,  and  sympathy  for  her  grief ;  but  she 
is  only  suffering  what   his   other  wives   suffered,  and  as  he  divorced 
them  for  her  sake,  what  fealty  could  she  have  expected  from  such  a 
man. 

I  remember  one  day  sitting  with  a  lady,  when  a  neighbor  rushed 

in  breathless  with  a  piece  of  news.     "  Oh,  Mrs.  S !"  she  exclaimed, 

"  do  you  know  your  husband  is  married  to  Mollie  — —  ?" 

"Indeed  !"  said  my  friend. 

"Yes,  and  what's  more,  he  has  been  married  to  her  for  some 
time." 

"  Well,"  replied  the  wife,  "  I  hope  he  treats  her  like  a  lady,  for  she 
is  a  very  nice  girl." 

The  news  was  premature,  for  the  husband  was  only  paying  atten- 
tion to  her,  and  Laving   obtained   the  first  wife's   consent,  he  married 
her.     They  lived  like  two  sisters.     The  man  owned  a  small  farm,  and 
one  day  he  had  a  paralytic  stroke,  and  could  no  longer  take  care  of  it,  - 
so  the  women  managed  it  and  took  care  of  him,  and  when  he  died  it 
was  divided  equally  between  them.     "  Now,  how  much  nicer  this  is,'* 
said  the  widows,  "than  to  have  let  the  property  go  out  of  the  family ••; 
because  we  could  not  get  along  together  !" 


58  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORHONISM. 

The  readiness  with  which  some  Mormon  women  acquiesce  in  tho 
Betting  up  of  a  rival  to  them  in  their  husbands'  affections  is  explicable 
upon  the  ground  of  superstition  alone.  The  really  devoted  Mormons 
believe  that  those  who  do  not  practice  polygamy  are  wrong,  and  not 
they ;  and  they,  especially  the  women,  are  fond  of  inveighing  against 
the  immorality  of  the  States— the  flirtation  and  worse  of  Gentile  wives, 
and  the  unfaithfulness  of  Gentile  husbands. 

One  part  of  :their  religion  speciously  appeals  to  the  superstitious, 
credulous  element  in  woman's  nature.  It  is  that  no  woman  can  enter 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  unless  as  the  wife  of  some  man ;  hence  old 
maids  are  scarce  in  Utah.  If  a  woman  is  resolutely  opposed  to  matri- 
mony and  especially  polygamy,  sealing  overcomes  the  difficulty.  Seal- 
ing constitutes  a  nominal  marriage,  and  also  helps  a  woman  financially, 
for  a  husband  is  bound  to  do  something  for  every  one  of  his  sealed 
wives,  if  it  is  but  to  send  her  a  pound  of  tea  weekly.  I  know  three  old 
maids — the  eldest  is  about  80.  They  weave  rag  carpets  for  a  living, 
and  are  all  sealed  to  the  same  man,  who  furnish  their  groceries  and  in- 
sures their  entrance  into  heaven.  If  an  old  rnaid  has  neglected  to  be 
sealed,  and  she  is  on  her  death  bed,  some  neighbor  will  be  hurriedly 
sent  for  to  be  sealed  to  her.  The  ceremony  is  simple,  consisting  of  a 
few  words  and  a  little  anointing  with  oil. 

Neither  falsehood  or  concealment  is  necessary  to  a  Mormon  in 
making  his  plural  union.  Number  one  is  taken  into  his  confidence 
from  the  beginning,  and  her  consent  respectfully  requested  to  every 
subsequent  marriage  is  a  formality  never  dispensed  with.  Until  she 
is  too  old  to  hold  her  own  at  all,  she  is  the  head  and  ruler  of  the  bevy 
of  wives.  Every  wife  is  given  so  much  and  no  more  of  the  husband's 
time  and  money,  thus  preventing  jealousy  and  dispute.  He  spends  a 
week  with  one,  a  week  with  another,  or  less  time  if  his  wives  be  many. 
If  he  takes  a  fancy  to  remain  longer  than  the  allotted  time  woe  be  to 
him,  for  all  the  other  wives  rise  up  as  one  united  injured  woman,  and 
make  it  lively  for  him.  You  see,  it  may  not  always  be  practicable  for 
one  wife  to  make  a  husband  toe  the  mark,  but  a  dozen,  more  or  less, 
find  it  no  trouble  whatever. 

One  singular  thing  in  Mormon  families  is  the  perfect  good  feeling 
which  invariably  exist  among  the  children.  They  never  quarrel,  as 
step-sisters  and  brothers  do  in  the  States,  for  tbcy  are  early  tanght 
that  their  rights  are  equal  and  respect  them,  their  common  father  tak- 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  59 


jug  care  to  show  no  more  favoritism  among  his  children  than  among  his 
wives.  I  was  often  amused  at  these  same  Mormon  children.  They 
irould  come  in  and  say,  "Mother,  Polly  So-and-so  is  going  to  be  mar- 
jried  to  Mr.  What's-his-name.  She's  going  in  fifth,  or  ninth,  or 
eleventh/'  »s  the  case  might  be.  And  then  mother  and  children  would 
sit  and  discuss  the  news  as  a  Christian  family  would  talk  about  a 
wedding  next  door. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

MEN      WITH      MANY      WIVES. 

I  have  alluded  to  the  wife  who  obtained  a  divorce  from  Brig- 
iam  Young.  Ann  Eliza.  She  was  a  thorough  Mormon,  ambitious  and 
intriguing  for  power.  She  wanted  the  glory  of  being  one  of  Brig- 
liam's  wives,  and  divorced  a  husband  in  order  to  reign  supreme  over 
his  vast  estates  and  many  wives.  Brigharn,  however,  was  enamored  of 
Ajnelia,  and  was  wooing  her.  Now  the  Mormon  women  have  a  sort 
of  confessional,  in  the  sacred  precincts  of  which  they  may  safely  con- 
fide their  desire  to  marry  a  certain  man,  who  is  thereupon  informed 
of  the  wish  by  the  pious  go-between,  and  the  gentleman  can  hardly 
refuse.  Ann  Eliza  would  not  take  no  for  an  answer — and  no  Brigham 
did  say  to  her,  I  know  for  a  certainty — so  she  became  the  nineteenth 
wife.  He  made  Eliza's  honeymoon  as  brief  as  possible,  and  hurried 
to  Amelia  again. 

Eliza,  like  all  the  rest  of  his  wives,  was  given  a  choice  of  resi- 
dence. She  selected  a  pretty  little  well-stocked  farm  about  four 
miles  from  Salt  Lake  City.  She  struggled  hard  for  the  office  of 
queen  bee,  but  there  is  no  such  sinecure.  She  was  so  nettled  at 
Brigham's  infrequent  and  quite  ceremonious  calls  that  she  took  a  dis- 
like to  her  farm,  and  thought  that  if  she  were  to  get  within  the  city 
limits  she  would  get  more  chance  at  him,  so  she  teased  and  tortured 
him  until  he  gave  her  a  house  in  town.  It  was  a  very  comfortable, 
commodious  dwelling,  very  roomy,  and  well  adapted  for  a  boarding 
house. 

By  this  time  the  Gentiles  had  overrun  the  Mormon  fastnesses, 
and  where  the  American  goes  there  the  boarding  house  follows.  The 
nineteenth  wife  could  not  become  the  power  behind  the  throne,  so 


60  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISll. 

she  resolved  to  open  a  boarding  house.  Brigham  thought  it  beneatht 
the  dignity  of  his  wife,  infinitesimally  speaking,  to  keep  a  boarding- 
house,  but  she  pestered  him  so  he  consented.*  He  had  married  her 
to  get  rid  of  her,  and,  not  succeeding,  he  thought  the  boarding  'housd- 
would  quiet  her.  She  took  in  some  Gentiles  who  backed  her  in  operi 
rebellion,  wrote  her  lecture,  and  started  her  lecturing.  This  was  the 
inner  life  of  Brigham  and  Eliza. 

Amelia  Folsorn,  her  successful  rival,  was  the  closest  approach  to 
a  boss  Brigham  Young  ever  had.  She  is  a  native  of  Portsmouth,  New 
Hampshire.  She  is  tall,  well  formed,  'with  light  hair  and  gray  eyes, 
and  regular  features,  and  has  but  little  refinement  of  manner.  When 
at  the  theatre  sitting  in  the  king's  box  with  her  husband,  the  ob- 
served of  all  observers,  she  may  be  seen  eating  apples,  throwing  the 
skins  about,  chatting  with  Brigham,  and  occasionally  leveling  her 
glass  at  some  one  in  the  assembly.  She  plays  and  sings  with  indifferent 
skill  and  taste.  She  was  for  a  long  time  unwilling  to  marry  the  Presi-^ 
dent,  but  he  was  really  dead  in  love  with  her  and  continued  his  suit 
till  by  repeated  promises  of  advancement  made  to  herself  and  her  par- 
ents he  finally  succeeded.  For  several  months  he  urged  his  suit,  dur- 
ing which  time  his  carriage  might  be  seen  almost  any  day  standing 
at  her  father's  door,  for  hours  at  a  time. 

When  he  got  her  he  discovered  that  he  had  caught  a  tartar.  She 
was  jealous,  fierce  and  cross-grained,  and  led  him  a  sorry  life  in  pri- 
vate. She  was  tyrannical,  and  ruled  the  women  of  the  harem  with  & 
strong  hand.  Poor  Emmeline,  who  next  preceded  Amelia  as  th& 
favorite,  was  quite  broken-hearted.  In  fact,  all  the  women  were  un- 
happy and  miserable.  A  common  remark  in  reply  to  the  usual  saluta- 
tion was,  "Oh,  I've  got  the  blues  to-day,"  and  they  never  got  out  of 
them  till  death  broke  the  family  up  and  sent  Amelia  off  into  re- 
tirement. 

Brigham  had  near  his  house  two  additional  houses,  one  where 
his  wive^s  and  their  children  lived,  and  adjoining  it  a  storehouse,  where 
groceries,  clothing  and  other  necessities  were  dispensed.  One  after- 
noon Brigham  was  sitting  on  his  stoop,  next  to  Cannon's  newspaper 
office,  talking  to  Bishop  Welles,  his  principal  aide-de-camp,  when  a 
little  girl  of  about  seven  years  approached  him  and  said : 

"Please,  papa,  can  I  hab  a  pair  ov  soo's?" 

"Shoes,  eh?"  answered  Brigham. 


A  WHOLESALE   MORMOK. 


MADE  GOOD  USE  OP  HIS  WITHSL 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  61 

"  Yelh,  thir!"  said  the  little  one. 

'<  Well,  who's  your  mamma?"  asked  Brigham. 

"  My  mamma !"  answered  the  child. 

"Yes,  yes,  I  know ;  but  what's  her  name  ?"  inquired  Brigham. 

"I  guess  it's  Ellen's  child,"  said  Bishop  Welles. 

"Oh,  yes;  I  believe  it  is!"  said  Brigham.  Then  turning  to  the- 
child  he  wrote  an  order : 

"  Give  Sister  Ellen's  child  a  pair  of  shoes,  and  charge  to  her  ac- 
count. B.  Y." 

It  is  not  uncommon  for  a  woman,  who  is  the  lawful  wife  of  a  Gen- 
tile, to  leave  her  husband  and  live  as  a  wife  of  a  Mormon.  Brigham 
Youn£  had  a  woman  in  his  harem  who  was  the  wife  of  a  gentleman  in 
Boston,  and  Parley  Pratt,  once  one  of  the  most  prominent  apostles, 
was  shot  and  killed  by  an  enraged  husband  for  taking  his  wife  from 
California  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and  there  marrying  her. 

Divorces  are  granted  by  the  Eirst  President.  I  knew  a  woman  in 
Salt  Lake  City  who  had  been  married  six  times,  and  all  her  husbands 
were  living. 

The  tendency  of  polygamy  being  to  immorality  generally,  I  might 
refer  to  indecency  in  conversation  as  particularly  observed.  This  oc- 
curs with  women  and  children  as  well  as  men.  Several  wives  of  one 
man,  with  their  children  present,  have  been  known  to  indulge  in  such 
indecent  conversation  as  would  bring  the  blush  to  the  face  of  a  modest 
woman  if  repeated  to  her  alone.  The  result  of  this  may  be  seen  in 
the  precociousness  of  their  children  in  certain  ways.  Urchins  of  eight 
or  nine  know  more  of  what  tlicy  should  not  know  than  youths  of  six- 
teen or  eighteen  in  a  refined  community.  They  are  not  only  afforded 
Opportunities  of  thus  corrupting  their  minds,  but  often  encouraged  to- 
do  so. 

Recently  a  boy  of  16,  the  leader  of  a  band  of  highwaymen,  after 
the  perpetration  of  an  atrocious  murder,  was  caught  and  lynched. 
From  his  childhood  the  boy  was  conspicuous  for  cruelty.  Every  living 
thing  that  approached  him,  if  it  was  weaker  than  he  was,  suffered.  A 
well-known  Mormon  Bishop  condoled  with  the  mother,  one  of  the  wives 
of  a  leading  Mormon.  "Do  not  insult  me  with  your  condolence,"  the 
poor  woman  exclaimed.  "It  was  the  poor  boy's  misfortune,  not  his 
fault.  Mor monism  is  alone  to  blame.  My  husband  came  here  to  do 
business.  As  soon  as  he  began  "to  grow  rich  he  was  told  that  Mormon 


•62  ,  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

patronage  would  be  withdrawn  unless  lie  became  a  Mormon  and  took  a 
second  wife.  We  had  been  very  happy  together,  but  my  husband  was 
tempted  by  the  hope  of  becoming  rich,  and  he  agreed  to  take  a  second 
wife.  She  was  'sealed'  to  him  in  the  Endowment  House,  and  duly  in- 
stalled in  our  home.  1  was  almost  maddened,  and,  before  my  boy's 
birth,  I  had  no  other  thought,than  the  killing  of  the  woman  who  had 
supplanted  me.  That  evil  thought  marked  him  for  a  murderer,  and  he 
is  what  your  church's  crime  and  his  father's  folly  made  him." 

I  accompanied  my  husband  recently  on  a  surveying  expedition. 
At  about  sundown  one  afternoon  when  we  were  on  the  outskirts  of  a 
small  settlement  a  part  of  the  harness  on  one  of  our  horses  broke. 
We  went  to  the  nearest  house  to  get  a  tool  to  repair  the  harness.  In 
a  room  about  18  feet  square  I  saw  a  rough-looking  man,  three  women 
and  a  number  of  children,  ranging  from  infants  almost  to  young  men 
and  women.  I  found  that  the  women  were  the  man's  wives  and  the 
mothers  of  the  children.  They  bore  the  relations  to  each  other  of 
grandmother,  mother  and  daughter. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  Heber  C.  Kimball  used  to  call  the  disgraces 
to  their  sex  who  will  submit  to  such  a  system  as  this  his 
"cows?" 

A  young  girl  of  Mormonistic  parentage  observed  even  noticing  a 
Gentile  is  called  to  a  very  strict  account.  A  good  story  is  told  of 
Bret  Harte  in  this  connection,  which  is  well  worth  repeating. 

Some  twelve  years  ago  Bret  was  visiting  there  in  company  with 
'Sam  Balston,  of  San  Francisco,  and  after  playing  a  game  of  billiards 
strolled  down  the  street,  intending  to  visit  the  theatre  and  see  Lotta, 
who  was  playing  that  evening.  As  they  came  near  the  theatre  Ral- 
ston noticed  two  young  ladies  who  had  come  up  in  the  stage  with 
them  from  Ogden  and  with  whom  they  had  kept  up  quite  a  flirtation. 
Nudging  Bret  he  raised  his  hat  and  said  : 

" Good  evening,  ladies,  going  to  see  Lotta?"  The  young  ladies 
looked  at  them  a  minute,  when  the  elder  of  the  two  said  : 

"  You  will  be  arrested  if  you  don't  look  out." 

Bret  Harte,  thinking  something  in  the  action  of  Balston  or  him- 
self had  offended  them,  said : 

"  Is  it  customary  here  to  arrest  gentlemen  because  they  politely 
speak  to  ladies  ?" 

"  No,"  said  the  young  lady,  "  not  because  they  speak  to  ladies  but 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  63 

{because  they  are  Gentiles  and  dare  address  Joseph  Smith's  chosen 
people." 

"  Well,  then,  I'll  see  Joe  ;  where  is  he  ?"  inquired  Bret,  not  at  all 
.abashed. 

"  Sir,"  said  the  lady,  "there's  my  father,  ask  him." 

Bret  politely  bowed  to  the  old  hayseed  gatherer  and  said : 

"  Your  daughter  informs  me  that  you  are  one  of  Joe  Smith's  peo- 
ple. I  once  knew  a  Joe  Smith  at  Petoluma,  who  was  one  of  the  best 
poker  players  on  the  flat,  only  he  lost  his  ear  ringing  in  a  cold  deck  on 
.Tom—" 

"Say,"  broke  in  the  father,  "say,  young  man,  I  doan't  know  yer 
and  I  doan't  want  ter.  Joseph  Smith,  sah,  is  our  Saviour,  the  same  as 
yours  and — " 

"  Well,  sir,  you'll  excuse  me,  I'm  sure,"  exclaimed  Bret,  "  but  I'm 
d— d  if  I  want  to  meet  your  Saviour  if  he  don't  save  you  folks  any 
better  than  he  seems  to." 

And  grabbing  Ralston's  arm  the  author  of  the  "  Heathen  Chinee  " 
made  a  break  for  the  nearest  bar-room. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

A     MOBMON     WIFE'S     STORY. 

The  following  story  of  the  life  of  a  friend  of  mine,  a  victim  of  the 
accursed  system  of  polygamy,  will  be  found  interesting  in  its  very  sim- 
plicity. It  tells  in  the  plainest  language  a  romance  no  pen  of  fiction 
could  equal  in  grim,  blood-curdling  eloquence  of  facts. 

This  is  the  story. 

I  was  born  and  raised  in  New  York  city.  When  seventeen  years 
of  age  a  severe  attack  of  lung  fever  struck  me  down,  so  that  my  life 
was  despaired  of.  While  lying  in  this  condition  a  young  man  who  for- 
merly worked  for  my  father,  but  two  years  before  my  attack  had  gone 
to  Utah,  returned  to  New  York  and  advised  me  to  send  for  a  Mormon 
elder,  who,  he  declared,  could  cure  me  by  the  laying  on  of  hands.  My 
parents  were  Methodists  and  considered  the  advice  as  an  insult,  but 
in  my  weak  and  despairing  frame  of  mind  I  told  the  ^jorang  man  to 
bring  the  Mormon  elder.  When  the  elder  came  he  laid  his  two  hands 


64  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

on  my  forehead.     Immediately  I  felt  three  rigors  pass  from   my 
to  feet  and  five  minutes  afterward  I  felt  entirely  recovered. 

Firmly  impressed  that  a  miracle  had  been  worked  on  me  I  felt 
that  the  elder  was  a  man  of  God  and  I  embraced  Mormonism,  being 
baptized  one  week  after  in  the  river  at  the  foot  of  Canal  street.  A  few 
months  after  this  I  was  married  to  William  Hunt  and  together  we  set- 
tled down  in  New  York.  We  lived  very  happily  together.  In  the 
spring  of  1862  the  Church  Elders  wanted  us  to  remove  to  the  land  of 
Zion.  I  talked  with  Mr.  Hunt  about  it ;  told  him  I  had  heard  thai- 
men  there  practiced  polygamy  and  I  thought  we  had  better  not  go.  Ho 
coincided  with  me,  but  the  heads  of  the  church  said  it  was  our  duty 
to  go,  and  my  husband  and  I  soon  consented. 

We  went  overland  to  Salt  Lake  City  and  began  life  in  that  place. 
Children  were  born  to  us  until  we  had  seven  and  they  were  our  de- 
light. We  prospered  in  everything  that  increased  our  boundless  wealth 
of  happiness.  But  one  day  there  came  a  change.  William  came  home 
and  said  that  Brigham  had  ordered  him  to  take  another  wife. 

I  almost  fainted  when  he  told  me  this  and  William  declared  to  me 
that  he  would  not  go  into  polygamy. 

But  I  had  misgivings  and  these  harassed  me  by  dayand  night  I 
had  a  servant  girl  living  with  me,  who  came  West  with  us,  and  as  she 
was  so  good  to  the  children  I  thought  a  great  deal  of  her.  She  was 
young  and  I  had  almost  a  mother's  feeling  for  her. 

William  came  again  to  me  one  day  and  said  that  he  was  endanger- 
ing his  hope  for  salvation  by  refusing  to  go  into  polygamy.  The 
Church  teaches  that  no  man  can  reach  the  highest  happiness  here- 
after^unless.he  shall  have  had  a  plurality  of  wives..  Well,  I  begged  him  as 
only  a  loving  wife  about  to  lose  her  idol  can,  on  my  knees  I  implored 
kim  to  leave  Utah  ;  to  think  of  our  children,  of  our  love  and  of  the 
many  days  of  undisturbed  happiness.  But  he  argued  with  me  by 
saying  that  he  should  obey  the  ordinance  of  God ;  that  if  he  took 
another  wife  it  would  not  change  his  old  love,  that  I  would  always  be 
first  in  his  heart. 

Up  to  this  time  I  did  not  suspect  whom  William  was  expecting  to 
marry,  but  at  length  when  he  told  me  he  was  about  to  be  sealed  to 
Jane,  my  servant  girl,  I  went  to  her  and  pleaded  with  her  to  give  up 
the  idea.  She  seemed  to  feel  bad  but  still  declared  her  love  for  him. 
I  did  not  know  what  to  do.  I  felt  murder  in  my  heart  and  could  have 


TOO    MUCH    MOTEEB-TX-LAV*. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  65 

killed  both  my  husband  and  Jane,  but  still  I  loved  him  with  the  wild- 
est infatuation. 

At  length  the  day  came  for  the  wedding  and  I  was  asked  if  I  de- 
sired to  witness  the  marriage  ceremony.  I  said  "Yes"  and  went  to  the 
Endowment  House  with  my  brain  on  fire  and  so  overcome  that  I 
fainted  three  times  in  the  building  before  the  marriage  ceremony  was 
completed.  Just  before  sealing  the  two  Brigham  Young  turned  to 
me  and  asked : 

"Sister  Hunt,  do  you  consent  to  the  marriage  of  your  husband  to 
ihis  woman  ?" 

I  replied:  "Yes  and  No." 

"This  is  a  very  singular  answer.     What  do  you  mean,  sister?" 

"I  mean  that  if  this  is  the  only  way  my  husband  can  see  God  and 
attain  a  blessed  life  everlasting,  then  yes ;  but  speaking  from  my  heart 
and  with  a  wife's  world  of  love,  I  reply  no,  no,  a  thousand  times  ;  for 
iis  life  eternal,  I  can  say  yes,  but  if  it  is  my  life  that  depends  upon 
this  issue,  I  say  no  ;  I  would  rather  abide  in  hell  than  have  him  marry 
another  woman." 

This  answer  was  regarded  as  a  consent  and  my  husband  received 
a  second  wife,  while  my  heart  perished  forever  when  they  were  pro- 
nounced one. 

But  the  loss  of  my  husband  in  this  manner  was  but  the  beginning 
of  a  system  of  persecution,  to  which  I  was  a  victim  for  two  years.  Mr. 
Hunt  had  no  sooner  taken  his  new  and  young  wife  home  than  he  be- 
gan to  despise  me.  The  girl  too,  a  wife  jointly  with  me,  turned  against 
me.  One  week  after  the  marriage,  as  we  were  walking  together,  I 
asked  Jane  why  she  treated  me  so  coldly.  She  replied : 

"It  is  because  I  hate  you,  and  I  hate  you  because  you  are  the  wife 
of  Mr.  Hunt." 

This  new  wife  of  William's  adopted  a  new  life  ;  instead  of  working 
as  before  marriage,  she  assumed  the  mistresship,  and  I  had  to  perform 
all  the  labor  that  was  not  done  by  my  children.  Daily  I  was  the  en- 
forced witness  of  their  love-making — the  new  wife  on  the  knee  and  in 
the  embrace  of  my  husband.  I  was  not  allowed  any  privileges,  and  my 
children  were  thrust  aside  by  their  father  and  Jane.  We  had  frequent 
brawls,  and  many  times  my  husband  has  struck  me  down  with  his  fist. 
At  length  ray  burden  of  trouble  had  become  so  great  that  I  resolved  to 
commit  suicide. 


66  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 

In  pursuance  of  this  resolve  I  went  to  a  drug  store  and  purchased 
twenty-five  cents  worth  of  laudanum.  The  druggist  seemed  to  suspect 
my  motives,  for  he  asked  me  what  I  wanted  the  drug  for.  I  replied 
that  it  was  for  a  sore  throat.  He  then  insisted  on  mixing  some  tinc- 
ture of  myrrh  with  it,  and  then,  taking  the  bottle,  I  went  into  a  sun- 
flower patch  and  drank  the  contents.  When  I  realized  my  deed,  I 
knelt  down  and  poured  my  soul  out  in  prayer  for  forgiveness.  I  then 
went  home,  and  as  I  reached  the  door  my  youngest  little  girl  came 
running  toward  me  crying,  and  said  : 

"Oh,  mamma,  Tse  so  dad  you  tome  ;  papa  won't  dive  me  any  dinna 
aid  I'se  so  hungy." 

I  saw  Mr.  Hunt  and  his  wife  sitting  at  the  table  eating  by  them- 
,elves,  while  my  children  were  driven  into  the  garden.  My  God !  said 
T,  what  have  I  done  !  What  a  coward  I  have  been  to  kill  myself  and 
leave  these  children  without  one  to  love  them.  I  had  not  been  in  the 
house  more  than  five  minutes  when  I  began  to  feel  tLe  effects  of  the 
laudanum.  I  asked  Jane  if  she  would  be  a  mother  to  my  children  if  I 
lied. 

"No,  never ;  I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  your  brats,"  she 
replied. 

I  then  more  fully  realized  the  enormity  of  my  crime,  and  I  prayed 
that  my  life  might  be  spared  for  my  children's  sake.  But  the  deadly 
drug  began  to  do  its  work  ;  my  head  was  bursting,  my  eyes  were  turn- 
ing inward,  while  my  ears  were  assailed  with  the  most  deafening 
noises,  cannons  firing,  drums  beating,  fiends  shouting,  water  roaring,. 
j,nd  a  confusion  of  noises  which  tore  my  brain  as  with  re-hot  pincers. 
Still  I  was  conscious.  I  could  still  hear  Jane  crying : 

"Oh,  she  is  dying  ;  go  for  the  Elder !" 

But  my  husband  only  cursed  me  and  said,  "I  hope  she  will 
4ie." 

He  demanded  of  me  to  know  what  I  had  taken,  but  I  refused  to 
tell  him.  When  I  became  unconscious  at  last,  they  found  the  empty 
bottle  in  my  pocket,  and  then  I  was  put  to  bed  by  Jane  (my  husband 
cursing  me  all  the  time).  I  drank  two  teacupfuls  of  soft  soap  grease,, 
which  proved  an  emetic  that  saved  my  life. 

When  I  recovered  my  husband  continually  upbraided  me  on  my 
unsuccessful  attempt  at  suicide,  saying  he  wished  I  would  complete 
the  job,  and  so  exasperated  me  that  at  length  I  again  resolved  to  do 


AT  LAST  THE  BODY  SAT  UP. 


SHE  DESCENDED   FROM   THE  TABLE  WITH    HER   GRAVE   CL.OTHES   ON. 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  67 

t 


the  deed  ;  but  when  about  to  execute  the  act  a  voice  sounded  in  my 
ear,  saying,  ""Wait." 

I  did  not  understand  the  warning,  but  obeyed. 

That  warning  saved  me  from  a  suicide's  grave.  It  gave  me 
strength  to  live  for  my  children,  and  I  have  borne  it  all.  Two  years 
ago  my  husband  rented  a  house  for  himself  and  Jane,  and  I  have  never 
lived  with  them  since.  Jane,  three  weeks  after  giving  birth  to  a  child, 
left  him,  and  he  is  now  a  drunkard  on  the.  streets  of  Salt  Lake  City,  an 
object  of  pity.  I  have  no  further  feeling  but  pity  for  him,  for  God  has 
made  him  suffer,  and  time  makes  all  things  even.  Twice  have  attempts 
been  made  on  my  life  by  the  Danites  for  revealing  the  secrets  of  poly- 
gamy, but  a  higher  power  has  sustained,  me.  No  human  being  ever 
suffered  more  than  I.  May  God  give  me  recompense  ! 

This  story  I  have  necessarily  summarized,  but  it  is  bad  enough, 
and  yet  it  is  a  story  that  will  describe  the  lives  of  nearly  every  poly- 
gamist's  wife. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE     DOOM     OF     MOBMONISM. 

Since  the  death  of  Brigham  Young  there  has  been  a  great  change 
in  the  church  government.  During  his  life  everything  appertaining  to 
the  sect  was  tributary  to  him,  especially  the  revenue.  Now,  however, 
the  financial  government  is  entrusted  to  four  elders  of  the  church. 
John  Taylor,  president  of  the  church  and  successor  to  Brigham  Young, 
has  accomplished  a  reorganization  and  now  confines  the  duties  of  pres- 
ident to  theological  management,  leaving  the  commerce  to  business 
men.  Taylor  is  a  very  clever  old  man,  nearly  eighty  years  of  age,  and 
always  makes  a  good  impression  on  those  who  visit  him.  Last  year 
he  took  another  wife  in  the  person  of  a  widow  named  Barrett.  This 
lady  is  a  native  of  England  and  became  a  convert  several  yeais  ago. 
She  came  to  Utah  with  five  hundred  other  proselytes  and  brought  with 
her  $750,000,  which  she  realized  from  the  sale  of  her  estates  in  England, 
This  large  sum  of  money  waa  a  morsel  after  which  Brigham  thirsted 
mightily  and  he  courted  the  widow  by  day  and  night,  inside  and  out- 
side the  Temple ;  but  she  wouldn't  wed  him  because  there  came  to 
ner  ears  many  stories  concerning  the  ill-treatment  of  women  in  the 


08  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM. 


presidential  harem.  Taylor,  however,  conducted  a  more  successful 
siege,  for,  after  battering  the  widow's  ramparts  for  onejear,  she  capit- 
ulated and  the  twain  are  now  nine — the  president  having  had  seven 
*ives  before  he  took  Mrs.  Barrett. 

The  church  is  now  in  a  flourishing  condition,  with  a  tithing  collec- 
tion of  $1,000,000  annually  and  an  increase  of  from  fifteen  hundred  to 
twenty-five  hundred  annually  in  church  membership.  Idaho  and  Mon- 
tana are  peopling  rapidly  with  Latter  Day  Saints,  too. 


John  Taylor,  who  i»  an  Englishman  as  I  have  already  said,  suc- 
ceeded to  Brigham  Young's  office  in  1877.  But  the  man  who  really 
rules  the  120,000  Mormons  in  Utah  is  'George  L.  Cannon.  Cannon  is 
an  Englishman,  too,  has  sat  in  Congress  as  territorial  delegate  from 
Utah  and  is  the  Mormon  attorney  at  Washington.  He  is  a  shrewd 
and  able  man,  who  with  the  same  opportunity  would  more  than  rival 
Brigham  Young  as  a  leader. 

But  his  opportunity  is  gone. 

The  opening  of  the  Pacific  road  has  been  the  first  step  toward  the 
overthrow  of  Mor monism.  The  Latter  Day  Saints  no  longer  live  in- 
trenched beyond  the  reach  of  the  government  whose  laws  they  violate, 
but  are  surrounded  by  settlements  and  within  easy  reach  of  an  army. 

It  was  a  part  of  the  policy  of  the  late  President  Garfield  to  open 
an  active  campaign  against  the  Mormon  infamy  and  his  successor  has 
adopted  the  same  purpose.  President  Arthur  in  his  inaugural  message 
painted  Mormonism  out  as  an  evil  calling  loudly  for  reform  and  in  the 
present  state  of  popular  opinion  in  regard  to  it  it  cannot  be  very  long 
before  it  is  takeii  sternly  in  hand. 

How  soon  that  will  be  it  is  difficult  to  prophecy,  but  the  black 
outrage  of  Mormonism  cannot  continue  unmolested  many  years  longer. 
The  people  are  awakening  and  crying  out  for  justice  against  it,,  and 
when  the  American  people  wake  and  cry  for  justice  they  generally 
get  it. 

That  the  Mormons  will  offer  any  active  resistance  to  Government 
interferenco  with  tlioir  loathsome\  practices  it  is  difficult  to  believe. 
Their  fanaticism  is  savage,  but  their  leaders  havo  bruins  and  it  is 
scarcely  probably  that  they  would  invite  utter  ruin  by  violence,  when 
"by  submitting  1  >  authority  they  know  must  eventually  overpower 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MORMONISM.  69 

them  they  can  save  their  hoarded  v^ealth.  at  the  expense  of  a   sover- 
eignty they  cannot  continue  to  wield  for  another  generation. 
%     In  a  recent  article  on  this  subject  an  able  writer  entitled  his  essaj 
"The  Mormon  at  Bay/' 

That   term  exactly  specifies  the  present  condition  of  the  foul  creed 
founded  by  Joe  Smith  and  Sidney  Rigdon. 

It  is  at  bay,  like  some  obscene  monster  which  the  hunters  hare" 
encompassed.  Civilization  has  surrounded  it  and  is  closing  in  upon 
it.  The  hands  of  all  decent  men  are  raised  against  it  and  it  can  only 
Await  its  deathblow  with  what  philosophy  it  may  command. 

When  it  is  hurled  to  ruin  there  will  fall  the  most  monstrous  struc- 
ture of  fraud  and  infamy  cemented  by  the  blood  of  sacrifice  ever 
reared  in  the  history  of  the  world  and  a  creed  of  lust  that  transforms 
-a  vast  stretch  of  our  continent  into  a  community  of  prostitution,  and 
physical  and  mental  debasement  will  become  the  by-word  for  iniquity 
it  is  still  a  triumphant  monument  to. 

TCND. 


PBIIiIiE 


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ACTRESSES-..  SHOWING  BUST. 

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Adelina  Patti. 

Clara  Morris.                Isabelle  Urquhart, 

ray  Templeton, 

Rosina  Vokes  (2). 

,   m 

4 

Lillian  Russell. 

Annie  Walters,             Maggie  Arlington, 

Marion   \.  Erie. 

Annie  Meyers, 

4^ 

Ida  Slddons. 

Carrie  Wilson                 Georgia  Cayvan, 

Liliie  May  Hali, 

Maude  Branscombe 

^r         : 

4 

Amy  Williams, 

Helen  Weathersby,     Neda  Rowers. 

Agnes  Miller. 

Marion  De  Grey 

A 

Maud  Stuart. 

Lizzie  Fietcher.             Maggie  Mitchell, 

•"lorence  Miller. 

Duchess  of  Lelnster 

'/        ^ 

4 

Elsie  Cameron 

Lelia  Farrell.                 Minnie  Palmer. 

itta  Martens  (2), 

Lilian  Price 

^•V    '; 

', 

Miss  Jerome, 

Frankie  Kemble  (2),    H.  Dauvray  Ward. 

Laura  Russell, 

Agnes  De  LaPorte 

4 

Helen  Dacre. 

Louise  Kerker  (2).        Maude  Wentworth. 

Marion  Roberts, 

Marion  Edgecombe 

A 

• 

Belle  Archer. 
Lurline  Birdsall, 

Agnes  Evans,               Adelaide  Emerson,      Hope  Temple. 
Cora  Tinnie.                  Florence  St.  John,       Maude  Granger, 

MIle.Dauvray 
Miss  Tua 

4 

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Edith  Chester, 

Marion  Percy,               Maud  Harrison,            J 

iate  Forsyrhe, 

Mrs.  Scott  Slddona 

Helen  Barry. 

Anna  t 

Cormne, 

Lillian  Grubb. 
Julia  Marlowe 

Emma  Thursby 
Kate  Davis 

^  •  4 

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Leslie  Chester. 

Ada  McDonald, 

May  Wheeler  (2), 

^ 

4 

Jennie  McNulty, 

Lilly  Post.          1;;:;;         j«' 

Miss  Crouzet. 

Ella  Weatnerbee, 

« 

Edith  Merrill 

Letty  Lind,                  ^jiMljjI^j^f 

Estelle  Clayton. 

Marie  Prescott. 

i:       4 

.£, 

Marie  Tempest 

Miss  Parr.          liil-  :  i;x^M 

Miss  Van  Osten. 

Katherine  Lynn, 

Miss  Engle 

Emily  Rigl, 

Isabelle  Evessoi 

i.Bella  Raymond, 

'^    , 

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Pearl  Ardine 

Miss  Bice.                      IEP€^£^;'^^ 

Miss  Saroitat. 

Mrs.  L  Eidridge, 

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Miss  Elvin, 

Flora  Hendersoi 

i  Miss  Fortescue, 

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4 

Mile.  De  Marsy 

Mrs.  Hauer,        ri;^l:":l;:i3Sl^fe.  :  ::a^1  ":':  •-::;;i^-;  • 

Pauline  Hall. 

Florence  Dysart, 

^ 

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Lizzie  Fleury 

Amy  Roche,       liiilriiiiJi^^BBI^^      HKr*     ''•; 

Mollie  Fuller, 

La  Belle  Fatima. 

^ 

Violet  Cameron. 

Cornalba.              '''"'^JEJ^^ 

Seiina  Fetter. 

Harriet  Vernon, 

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Pauline  Lucca 

Li  la  Blow            r  jjll^fc-^  '  ~^-''"       RH&-      ^~ 

Sturgis  Leath. 

Marion  Hood, 

Louise  Thorndyke 

Eva  Lee    "          liyevi^fcP^""-'^*"'       %§&••      '''••'- 

Miss  Brewster, 

Sara  Holmes, 

^ 

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Emma  Nevada 

Annie  Robe, 

Marie  Jansen, 

Isabella  Coe. 

^ 

Mile  Eames, 

Annie  Irish,       r^'''*^3RL-v        ~"~-^HHRi^~-' 

Cora  Tanner. 

Xesiafaiistadt, 

4 

Mile.  Nalidji. 

Lotta.                  1  1'-~     ^^9l^^^£Md| 

Jane  Hading, 

Hilda  Thomas, 

Mile.  Paulette, 

Janisch,                                                 BttPS^ 

Louise  Lester, 

Mile.  Darcelle 

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Mile.  Carnesi, 

Alice  Evans      I                            aSff^^^^'^ 

Louisa  Dillon, 

Maude  Millett, 

A 

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Mile.  Lehure, 

Miss  Patrice*       ^- 

Lillian  Olcott. 

Mrs.  M>.rini 

^         ^ 

4 

Mile.  Fa  Beauty, 

Minna  (vale  '     !  ^           ^^^^^^K~-^. 

Marie  Halton. 

Mrs.  Barrington 

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Mile.  Deharcourt, 

Sylvia  Grey'       l^fewv//---'-'//--  •   .-:      jtismiTrgfoiaii 

Rose  Newham. 

Miss  McNulty 

^ 

^ 

Mile.  Dieroza, 

Miss  Mack.' 

Mabel  Millette, 

Corine  Gilchrist 

4 

Mile  Dandeville, 

Sadie  Martinot.            Mrs.  Fitzherbert, 

Bell  Howard. 

Mile.  Vallier. 

Mile.  Chassaing. 
Mile.  Lhery  (4), 

Clara  Louise  Kellogg,  Geraidine  Ulmer  (2),    Josephine  Cameron 
Fanny  Davenport,       Phyllis  Broughron,      Grace  Stewart. 

Carrie  Godfrey, 
Josie  Mansfield 

H 

^ 

Mile   Cobure. 

Mrs.   Langtry.               Florence  Ashbrooke, 

Miss  Ravmond. 

Mile.  Bertini 

4 

4 

Emmii  Carson. 

Minnie  Madueru,         Irene  Verona  (2),         Ciara  Dervyra, 

Flora  Moore, 

4                                                                            ACTRESSES---IN  TIGHTS. 

4 

4 

Pauline  Markham, 
Anna  Boyd  (3), 

May  Bell,                      Emma  Carson,             Mile.  Bianra, 
Elaine  Carringford,     Maude  Granger,           Miss  Vallos 

Kate  Uart  (2). 
Miss  Robinson, 

4 

Clara  Terry 

Oracle  Wilson.             Carrie  Wilson.               : 

Ulle.  Ferrare 

May  Livingston, 

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Ruth  Stetson  (4), 

Annie  Sutherland,       Lelia  Farrell  (2), 

Miss  Sheridan 

Kitty  Wells, 

^ 

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Mabel  Mitchell, 

Miss  Valles,                  Agnes  Evans, 

Forence  Girard. 

Alice  Townsend, 

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Miss  Bell. 
Carrie  Evlvn, 

Mile.  Debuege,              E.  Verge  (2),                  Carrie  Andrews  (2), 
Miss  Spiller,                  Lillian  Grubb,              Genevieve  Brett, 

Mile.  Germaine, 
Marion  Manola, 

4 

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Erne  La  Tour, 

Grace  Huntley             Flo  Henderson, 

aattie  Delaro, 

Miss  Polak, 

4 

Elsie  Gerome, 

Jennie  Lee                   Ada  Webb, 

Vernona  Jarbeau, 

Mile,  Duprey, 

4 

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Amy  Gordon. 

Victorina.                      Nellie  Farren, 

Phedora  DeGilbert 

Elisa  Vovel. 

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4 

Daisy  Murdock  (2), 
Grace  Seavey. 

Ida  Yeararce.              Miss  Stuard  (4),           Louise  Montague, 
Miss  Miller.                   Harriet  Vernon,           Florence  Chester 

Miss  Venus. 
Eunice  Vance 

4 

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A7inie  Suminerville, 

Jeannette  Larger,        Addie  Conyers, 

Laura  Burt. 

Annie  Bennett 

4 

4 

Fanny  Rice. 
Jessie  West. 

Abelonia  Barreson,      Mile.  Dieroza,               Lilly  Elton  (4), 
Irene  Verona  (5).         Mile.  Volti,                   Marion  Elmore, 

4 

4 

Alice  Arnold, 

Sylvia  Grey,                 Billie  Barlow,               Ella  Moore, 

'4 

4                                                                           ACTRESSES---  IN  COSTUME. 

4 

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Lyiiia  Thompson, 

Kate  Claxton,               Marie  Finney,               2 

(file.  Bonnet  (2) 

Sadie  Martinot, 

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Mary  Anderson. 

Clara  Thc.rpe.               Sybil  Sanderson, 

lose  Murray 

Minnie  Palmer, 

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Margaret  Mather. 

Adelaide  Detchon,       Mrs.  Kendal,                 ] 

^earl  Eytinge 

Lillian  Russell, 

Mrs.  J.  B.  Potter  (2). 

Fannie  Bioodgood.      Alice  Lethbridge,         : 

darie  Roze 

Modjeska, 

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Maggie  Cline. 

Amorita  Bonnnella,     Marion  Hood,                ; 

^gnes  Booth 

Clara  Morris. 

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4 

Isabella  Irving, 
Myra  Goodwin. 

Emily  Dagrau.             Mrs  Bernard  Beere,    Christine  Nillson 
Mile.  Franciain           Maude  Richardson,    Emma  Juch 

Helen  Weathersby, 
Marie  Jansen. 

4 

Katie  Seymour, 
ROSH  Coghian. 

Surf  Queen                    Mile.  Periane,               Mary  Moore, 
Laura  Don                    Mile.  Tanzi,                   Ella  B.  Sheridan, 

Marie  Halton  (2), 
Dollie  Noble. 

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Minnie  Jeotlreyg, 

Mrs.  A.  Neilson           Mile.  Ajour,                   I 

Ellen  Terry, 

Adelaide  Fitz  Allen. 

;    '///  * 

9 

Catherine  Lewis 

Mrs.  Chanfrau            Mile.  Pauline,               I 

)elia  Ferrell. 

Jeannette  BoiiVL-ret. 

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4 

Jennie  Winston. 
Amelia  Glover. 

Bertha  Ricci                 Mile.  Grigolatis,            Carrie  Tu  Tein, 
Paola  Marie                  Mile.  Carmen.               Mahel  Hudson.  . 

Minnie  Dupree. 
Miss  Dunsombe 

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jj^ 

Mrs.  J.  W.  Florence, 

Irene  Verona.               Mile.  Nerette,               J 

larion  Pierce, 

Soi^.lad  Meueudos 

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Annie  Pixley, 

Isabel  Urquhart,          Marie  Cahill,                 S 

liss  Williamson. 

Mile.  Stewen 

\    4 

^ 

Theo. 

Maude  Stewart,            Belle  Bilton,                  > 

larie  Wainwright, 

Jennie  Hauk 

^ 

^^ 

Georgie  Dennin. 

Marioti  Elmore.           Zelia  De  Lussan,         S 

ara  Hernhardt, 

Jeffreys  Lewis 

^;>  ': 

4 

Madame  Gerster, 

Helen  Barry.                 Jennie  La  Tellier,        L 

otta. 

Mattie  Vlckers 

^ 

4 

Modjeska, 

Mile.  Theiry,                Sylvia  Gerrish,            Pauline  Hall, 

Emma  Abbott 

: 

^ 

^ 

SPANISH    DANCERS. 

- 

4 

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"The  Bartenders'  Guide,  or  How  to  Mix  Drinks."  A  standard  Book. 
Handsomely  Illustrated  with  numerous  Colored  Drawings.  Published  by 
Richard  K.  Fox.  Price.  25  Cents. 


